Germany and Slovakia faced off for a place in the Quarterfinals in Lille. A game which was dominated from start to finish by the World Champions , Germany cruised to a 3-0 victory with goals from Jerome Boateng , Mario Gomez and Julian Draxler. Here are the 5 things we learnt from Germany vs Slovakia
1 Germany finally played like World Champions
Germany had a slow start to the tournament, winning unconvincingly against Ukraine and playing out a boring 0-0 with Poland in their second game, they picked up some momentum against Northern Ireland and bought the momentum here with them as they dominated from start to finish. They took an early lead through Jerome Boateng’s strike from outside the box. Germany continued to thread in the entire first half and their good work was rewarded as Mario Gomez tappe home to make it 2-0 before the break. It was the same drill after halftime , Slovakia had no answers and ultimately proved to be a training exercise for the Germans. Ozil’s penalty miss was the only blemish on a perfect night for the World Champions.
2 Julian Draxler was fantastic
Mario Gotze has quite some achievements on his CV , Scoring the winning goal at a World Cup for starters, even that could not stop Julian Draxler to start in his place , and the Wolfsburg forward thoroughly justified his selection with a Man of the match performance. His neat work down the left hand side resulted in Germany’s second before he himself finished acrobatically to make it 3-0 .He is doing complete justice to Miroslav Klose’s jersey number.
3 Slovakia should be proud
Slovakia defended well throughout their 3 group games , they frustrated England in a 0-0 draw which cost England the top spot in the group. This was the best performance from them at a European Championship and they should be proud of their achievement,
4 Germany always have a goalscoring striker
Nobody knows how Joachim Low does it , but the german team always peaks at the right time, they were unconvincing before the start of the tournament and now play to their full potential. Be it Miroslav Klose or Mario Gomez , they always have a striker who is ready to poach the ball inside the net and these goals are really vital . Although both of Gomez’s goals so far can be termed as tap ins , it is the art of being at the right place at the right time. Something which all great german strikers have possessed over the years.
5 Germany face a tough Quarter Final
Germany will now face either Italy of Spain in the quarter finals , a match which could potentially determine the eventual Champions, this will be Germany’s biggest test since the game against Argentina 2 years ago.
Also Read – Euro 2016 : 5 things we leant from France vs Ireland
