France V Germany World Cup 2014

France V Germany Fifa World Cup 2014

After match synopsis in red!!

Beers: Quarter Finals Beer World Cup:

http://thisdrinkinglife.com/world-cup-beer-2014-quarter-finals/

Who is set to win the battle of the beers? Quilmes came second in their group to Guinness Export but did beat Kronenbourg of France to make the last eight, while Germany has a solid team of Lowenbrau, Karlskrone and Friedenfelser, a winning combination that will be hard to beat. They topped their group and beat a strong Russian contender Baltika Porter to make it this far. Who will quench the thirst, set the mood, get me in the right spirit? Click on picture for a preview of the beers. Get the beer result after, much after!

Quilmes V Friedenfelser Hefe-Weizen. 0-2 Win for Friedenfelser as its taste was delicious and left me wanting more! A lot of carbonation but that’s normal for a German wheat beer. Once it settled the colour was of a very clear orange beer with a nice frothy head, that looked very appealing.The aroma was quite strong with notes of sweet banana, yeast and wheat.But it pulled way ahead of Quilmes due to its fantastic taste and was very nice, very easy to drink. It tasted very sweet, and contained flavours of yeast and wheat, with a strong fruity banana aroma, and the aftertaste, was very manageable. Overall it was a good, pure and clear well balanced drink with a nice strong feel to it. Quilmes was also a decent beer, drinkable and does the business, i.e quenches the thirst. It has a very interesting taste of a little corn and grain sweetness to open it up, a kind of sickly sweet, with a bitter aftertaste in the end. A nice beer, enjoyable, but no match for a Bavarian master brew. Again Freidenfelser pull out a winning beer from their vast collection.

PreGame:

France got lucky in the last game against Nigeria as they were under the cosh for long periods of time, and they could easily not be here today playing Germany. Nigeria just couldn’t get the final ball to work for them, and they wilted badly in the second half.

France played very well when Antoine Griezmann came on, and it looks like he will get a starting position today. Him coming on means Benzema can play more central, which works well for France.

This game today is a mouthwatering tie, for the right to advance to the last four of the World Cup. What a clash that will be from the two border rivals.

Germany came out of a very tough tie against Algeria, in a strange game where Neuer was man of the match despite using his feet more than his hands! He had to bail out his defence on numerous occasions so it will be interesting to see if the Germans get away with that ploy today against France, especially with French attackers as fast as Benzema, Griezmann and Valbuena.

What game will Germany play today? Will they bring the game to France or sit back and counterattack? Its hard to predict as in one way both teams are quite similar, strong midfielders and good attacking players, and both teams have top class goalkeepers. My heart says France but my head goes with Germany. It should be a cracking game though. Enjoy.

Germany get through to another semi finals, while France, rather timidly, exit the tournament. Wasn’t the best of games, as Germany scored early then shut up shop. France did not have anything to danger the Germans in defence and that was about that. Even though the bag of laughs that is Joachim Low, the German coach, said that the game “was an incredibly exciting match” but he is a fool of man, that should never be taken too seriously.

To tell you how boring the game was Germany had three shots in total on target and scored with their first, with Mats Hummels’ early header proving enough to beat the French in a tepid match.

France did play well in parts, doing well in midfield with Griezmann running as a free player covering both sides of the wing, they had a lot of the possession. Benzema, Pogba, Valbuena and Griezman all had good chances to score, but Neuer wasn’t going to be beaten today. The German defence also kept the French at arms length, restricting them to long range efforts or fluffed hurried shots on target. In short, it was a very easy match to win. Schweinsteiger, again had a good game, the general dogsbody of the team, while Lahm looked much better back in his old true position of left back. Hummels, even not taking into consideration his very well taken goal, was a standout performer for me in defence, as very few chances fell to the French from inside the penalty box.

Shurle looked a bit lively coming on, and should have doubled the lead with a relatively simple chance. But it does show the strength of the German bench that you can bring on a player as decent as Shurle and he can have an immediate impact.

France did raise their game a little in the last half hour of the game as the Germans retreated even more into a defensive shell, and you could argue all their build up play deserved a goal. Their final chance came when Giroud set up Benzema who burst free and fired off a hard shot on Neuer who calmly fisted it away, when probably a simple pass into the box might have gotten better results. Last chance gone as Germany move into the semi’s to face Brazil, while France go home with a squad that might come good in two years time for the European championships in their home country.

Two players that didn’t live up to expectations for me were Ozil who again was disappointing and had a very quiet game. In fact he has had a very quite season full stop. Very curious to know how and why his season is so poor especially from a player that we all know can perform and has the true ability to change games. And Pogba also disappointed. He played ok, but I haven’t seen much from him in this tournament to suggest he would be one of the players to watch, as he was touted on many media platforms pre World Cup. Perhaps the occasion got to him, and he will be stronger in four years time?

A word on the ref Néstor Pitana from Argentina who had a decent game. Well done.

Music to get you in the mood

Kraftwork V Bob Sinclar