FIFA WORLD CUP 2018 – Germany vs Mexico PREVIEW
The world champions get to hit the stage against a solid Mexican side. A game where we should be expecting lots of attacking football, goals and in general just a great game. Germany and Mexico love providing games that have goals lets just look at Confed Cup in 05 when they ended 4-3 or last year when Germany won 4-1. The attacking talent will be on full display, no one will sit back and it will be an entertaining game between the two exciting teams.
GERMANY
The defending world champions, Germany are coming into this game as heavy favourites and rightly so, I mean they are the champions and are one of the best teams in the tournament. Germany have always been a fun attacking side and it’s no different this year. Germany’s biggest strength is how well coached and prepared they are. Germany have made 6 major tournament semi finals in a row which shows that they are very consistent, always prepared and always tend to go far in tournaments. Germany never lack confidence and it’s the same again this year as they fully believe they can win it all again. German have players who are full of creativity such as Kroos, Ozil, Reus, Muller, they probably are a team with the most depth overall and if injury occurs they have a replacement in every position. Only questions for Germany during this world cup that I’d have is that is Neuer going to regain form quickly? Will Werner fill the void of Klose as a striker at the world cup? And will Germany avoid getting punished because they lack pace. Germany’s lack of pace is a problem, especially at the back and Mexico can actually expose that with quicker players. Overall Germany should be able to have another good start to the world cup and roll on to have a good tournament as they always do. They’re just too good at preparation to fail.
Germany’s road to the world cup was easy. They won all 10 games with 30 points out of 30 and scoring 43 goals conceding 4. They had a relatively easy group with the main opponents being Northern Ireland, Czech Republic and Norway of which neither threatened Germany at all. They scored many goals and conceded basically none. Just a typical German qualifying campaign, ruthless and dominant.
Germany played two friendlies right before the world cup. They lost 2-1 to Austria with their B team and beat Saudi arabia 2-1. Germany looked sloppy in both games, but if there’s something we’ve learned over the year is don’t judge Germany over friendly results because they always seem to slack in friendlies. There really is nothing to say about these friendlies other than their lack of pace was exposed a little, but overall we need to wait until the tournament to see how Germany look as their friendlies are normally lackluster anyway.
MEXICO/b]
Mexico have always been a regular at the world cup and it’s no different this year as they’ve qualified again for the 16th time. Mexico always bring exciting football to the world cup, they love to play attacking, quick football and tend to be slightly leaky at the back against bigger teams especially. Mexico’s biggest weakness in tournament is the inability to win against big teams, you can just see that if you look at the fact that they haven’t gotten past a Quarter Final in 15 previous attempts at the world cup and in general recently they always get bounced out in R16 to the likes of Argentina twice, Netherlands, lost to Germany’s B team 4-1 last year, couldn’t beat Portugal, lost to Chile infamously 0-7 in copa America recently. They seem to have good players who can compete against anyone, but never seem to get a result against the big nations and it’s a problem going into the opening game because they’re facing world champions Germany and given the fact that they lost to them 4-1 last year and they weren’t at full strength it doesn’t set you up well. If you look at Mexico’s squad they have some really talented players like Hirving Lozano who scored 17G and got 8A in PSV’s run to the Eredivisie title, the 22 year old will be playing in his first world cup and he may be the difference for Mexico. Also they have veteran legends like Guardado and Marquez, then both Dos Santos, Chicarito is still here, Herrera, Peralta too. They have a talented, experienced side with a mix of youth. They’re exciting to watch and can cause anyone problems, but their inability to win big games is questionable and it will be put to test right away.
Mexico’s road to the world cup was quite straight forward, they had two different group stages starting with the one with Honduras, Canada and Salvador as their opponents which Mexico breezed by easily with 5W 1D 0L, 16 points and 8 points clear of 2nd place. Mexico then dominated the final stage too. They finished at the top of the group, 5 pts clear of Costa Rica, 9 pts clear of eliminated USA in which was a good showing by Mexico in the qualifiers. They were never in doubt. In between the qualifiers Mexico took part in the confederations cup where they finished 4th losing the 3rd place match to Portugal which just adds to my point that they cant win big games.
Mexico are coming into the world cup on an up and down form. They had a draw with Wales 0-0, beat Scotland 1-0 and lost to Denmark 2-0. They created many chances in those games, but didn’t take it which is a bit of an issue coming into the world cup because Mexico will have to take their chances, especially against Germany as they’ll get punished otherwise. There really isn’t anything to make out of Mexico after those friendlies, just a few up and down results. I think we’ll only have an opportunity to decide how good Mexico is after the world cup.
What to Expect From The Game/b]
Think it’s pretty obvious that Germany will be on the front foot in this game. They are the superior side and will be the ones working and trying to break down Mexico, however Mexico themselves will be looking to find ways to get on the attack too and that could create spaces for the German creative midfield. Mexico’s best way to win this game is going to use the quickness of their attacking players which could cause Germans problems because they have a slow defence, however Germany should be well prepared for it and could easily shut Mexico’s attack out. This should be a really good game and if Germans click then they should be able to win the opener of their world cup, but if Germans struggle like they did in friendlies which is unlikely they could drop some points here so they’ll need to be at the top of their game which I think we all trust Germany to do. There will be goals in this game and in the end Germany should win 2-1 / 3-1.
ODDS – Decimal (WilliamHill)
Germany Win – 1.44
Draw – 4.50
Mexico Win – 7.00
KICK OFF – 17th June 2018 – 4pm UK Time
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