Germany's national soccer team player Schweinsteiger flashes a victory sign on his way to a ferry boat in the town of Santa Cruz Cabralia
Germany's national soccer team player Bastian Schweinsteiger flashes a victory sign on his way to a ferry boat in the town of Santa Cruz Cabralia north of Porto Seguro early July 1, 2014. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann

Final Score

France 0 Germany 1

Overview

Match number 58 is the second quarterfinal match. France won against Nigeria in normal time to enter the quarterfinals while Germany defeated Algeria in extra time.

Teams

France: France has been one of the most consistent teams in this World Cup. It scored several goals in group stages. including 8 in its first two matches. However, its match against Nigeria remained a deadlock for the major part of it. French strikers who were quite successful in their earlier ventures looked unconvincing. Even though France's last group match against Ecuador ended in a goalless draw, France attacked the opponent's goal several times.

However, it was a different story against Nigeria. The African team was able to restrict France in most cases. France's attack hardly looked menacing against Nigeria. The first goal came at the 79th minute when Paul Pogba put his team ahead. Joseph Yobo's own goal at the 92nd minute made it 2-0. The last time France made the semifinals in a World Cup was in 2006, when they went all the way to the final where they lost to Italy.

The European rivals meet again in the quarterfinals in Brazil.

Germany: Germany came to the world cup as one of the top contenders to lift the cup. So far, it has shown enough fire-power to justify the claim. There are very few teams who match Germany's performance at the World Cup and this year may be no exception.

However, a much smaller team in Algeria made the life of the European giant difficult in the last match. The African team has historical rivalry against Germany and some have called the match, a David vs. Goliath battle. Germany, which earlier scored 4 goals against European biggie Portugal, could not score in the first 90 minutes of play. The first goal came only during the extra-time when André Schürrle took his team ahead. Mesut Özil scored another at the 120th minute of the match and sealed it for Germany.

Abdelmoumene Djabou, on the other hand, scored a goal for Algeria at 120 minute 58 second to make it 2-1, and exposed the vulnerability of German defence. German strikers need to be more effective as France is likely to pose greater threat than what Algeria did in the last match.

Head to Head

These two teams played 25 times against each other before. France won 11, Germany 8, and 6 matches ended in a draw. There were 83 goals scored in total. France scored 41 of those and Germany 42.

Key Players

France: Karim Benzema and Moussa Sissoko

Germany: Thomas Müller and Lukas Podolski

Date, Time & Venue

Brazil's time zone is UTC/GMT -3. The match starts at 1 pm (local time) on July 4, which means it is 2 am on July 5 in New South Wales, Australia. The match will be held at Estádio do Maracanã in Rio de Janeiro.

Prediction

France failed to score many goals in its last 2 matches. It could not finish what it developed on several occasions. Germany, on the other hand, looked dominant in every match it played, no matter what the score line was. Germany will fall heavy on France and win it 3-1.

Contact the writer: s.mukhopadhyay@ibtimes.com.au

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