France’s Rise to Power: How They Surpassed Germany in Football

A grueling afternoon in Rio. This July 4, 2014, the Maracana is suffocating under the crushing heat of a blazing sun. World Cup quarter-final, France – Germany carries a whole bunch of bad memories, the Blues, returning from the depths of Knysna, offered themselves the poster they were waiting for. It is a mountain of certainties that stands before the new generation of Didier Deschamps. And if we see in the distance the Corcovado from the stands of the carioca saucer, no one really believes in the divine miracle. The match is going as planned. Crumbs for France, Hummels jumps higher than everyone, especially Raphaël Varane. Curtain. As in Seville in 1982, as in Guadalajara in 1986 and as always in short.

Basically, everyone is happy. The Blues return to Paris with the feeling of duty accomplished. They revived the fire. Germany, for its part, has many other considerations and will proudly conquer its fourth star by kicking the butt, in the process, of the other legend of this sport, Brazil (1-7). Great Germany, proud Germany, powerful Germany: everyone bows to the Mannschaft of Joachim Löw. No one imagines that she will violently fall from her throne four years later and that France will replace her as the absolute reference in Europe.

Hugo Lloris, Antoine Griezmann during France’s defeat against Germany in 2014

Credit: AFP

2016, the shift

Their clashes have been shaping their intersecting trajectories since that July afternoon in Rio. Historical executioners of the Blues, the quadruple world champions have not defeated them for six meetings, suffering four setbacks in the process. Fear has changed sides quite clearly. The model is no longer what we think. In 2015, when we met Didier Deschamps, the Blues coach only had eyes for the reference at the time: “Germany is eight years of living together. It has reached the semi-finals , a finale, to finally achieve your goals.” Everything has changed since then.

The tipping point dates from July 7, 2016. The climate was less heavy than in Rio but the atmosphere at the Vélodrome was much more electric. That evening, the best team in the world fell to the blue wave and hurricane Griezmann even though the Germans had frankly dominated the debates. What then passes for an accident is in fact the twilight of an immense nation. Since this defeat, she has not won a match in a World Cup or Euro final table and was eliminated from the groups in Russia and Qatar when France taped a second star on the jersey before losing a second World Cup final four years later.

But how did Germany fall so low?

2021, confirmation

The Blues have learned the lessons of their former masters. Those who were only promises in 2014, Varane, Pogba, Griezmann, have accumulated experience in the biggest clubs in the world to become references. Deschamps has built, like Löw before him, a hard and thick core of essentials. With the difference that the French coach was able to open his group to others, calling back those we thought were condemned to breathe new life when the situation demanded it. For this, he was able to rely on a pool that has no equivalent in the world, or perhaps in Brazil but certainly not in Germany. Today, the strength and power of the Blues also rest on the depth and variety of profiles that make up its group. When Germany is looking for heads that stick out.

Euro 2021 will confirm this state of affairs. On its land, Germany takes the Blues in the buffet. That evening, in Munich, the control of the Blues was frightening, the gap between the two nations widened irremediably to the point of caricature. Finalist of the World Cup, France displays 100% success in the Euro qualifiers while its long-time enemy, now 15th in the FIFA rankings, has just changed coach and wonders what sauce it will be eaten with next June . France has never had such an advance over its ancestral executioner.

“France-Germany 2021, stronger than France-Belgium 2018”

2023-09-12 12:32:00
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