By Karolos Grohmann
BELO HORIZONTE
Brazil (Reuters) – France have surprised many by emerging as World Cup
contenders but face their toughest test yet against nemesis Germany in a
quarter-final clash of European heavyweights at Rio de Janeiro’s
Maracana stadium on Friday.
For France coach Didier Deschamps the past, heart-rending
World Cup semi-final defeats to the Germans in 1982 and 1986 do not
matter at all.
But with French media splashing the word “Angstgegner”,
the German word for bogey team, across their front pages and broadcasts,
Deschamps must conquer the fears of an entire nation if he is to
restore his country’s World Cup eminence.
France, who have scored 10 goals in four matches in
Brazil, have already gone a long way to restoring some pride after their
hapless first round exit in 2010.
Reaching the last eight with solid teamwork has already
done much to rebuild their image but facing the Germans in a knockout
game is motivation in itself.
They have only excruciating memories of their last two
World Cup battles against them, losing a nerve-racking semi-final in
1982 in Spain.
After scoring twice to lead 3-1 in extra time they
conceded two goals and crashed out on penalties in what has become
known as ‘Seville ‘82’.
Germany keeper Toni Schumacher’s reckless challenge on
France’s Patrick Battiston which left the player with broken ribs, an
injured vertebrae and shattered teeth, further added to the bitterness
of that loss.
Four years later it was again the Germans who killed off their world Cup dreams with a 2-0 victory in Mexico.
Deschamps has refused to talk to his players about those
games, instead saying, “if my players were not born then, they were not
born then. What’s the point talking about it.
“We must not let our confidence turn into arrogance,” he
told reporters. “Players have the right to dream. Everyone can dream.
But I am generally a pragmatic and realistic man. We can dream but the
reality is Germany on Friday.”
SUPERIOR GERMANS
“The Germans’ results in the past few tournaments have
been superior to ours,” added the 45-year-old, who has never lost a game
at a World Cup both as a player and as a coach, but is more than happy
to pass the favourites tag to his opponents.
For Germany, it has been 24 years since their third and most recent World Cup crown.
They have come close in the past two tournaments, reaching the last four but stumbled at the penultimate hurdle.
After a laboured extra time 2-1 win over Algeria in the
round of 16, the Germans are facing mounting pressure from their fans,
desperate to see an end of their title drought.
“You get games like that in a tournament and you just
have to battle your way through,” said Germany coach Joachim Loew. “In a
tournament you cannot always play fantastic football.”
A question mark hangs over Loew’s shaky defence and how
it will react to its biggest test so far in the tournament, with
France’s Karim Benzema, Olivier Giroud and Antoine Griezmann posing a
far bigger threat than the Desert foxes attack.
“We have to do it better against France,” Loew warned,
insisting captain Philipp Lahm would not slip back from midfield into
his traditional full back position, where he rose to become one of the
best in the world, despite his defence’s obvious weaknesses.
“I have taken my decisions, including the role of Lahm and I will stick to those until the very end,” said Loew.
