Balotelli exposes German flaw

Not for the first time, Italy have upset the order.

Germany may have been the most exhilarating and admired team in this tournament but they will not be one of the last left at it, and that is because Cesare Prandelli’s side might be the cleverest.

Quite simply, the Italian manager outfoxed Jogi Löw last night, with his team’s possession game piercing holes in the loose German system and Mario Balotelli eventually powering through.

For the second tournament in a row, Germany have gone out at the semi-final stage. The question has to be asked if they are a “nearly team”. For all the admirable abilities their approach has given them, you have to wonder whether they forgot to imbue their players with some of the core German qualities of old.

At the very least, too, the tournament remembered what it was like to see the ball hit the net outside of a shootout.

Indeed, this game had also been seen as one that could secure the tournament’s legacy. It was refreshing that both sides stayed true to their managers’ pre-game mission statements that they would not alter their style.

Within five minutes, Balotelli had been put through on goal while Andrea Pirlo had to clear a Matts Hummel header off the line.

In that, the Italian midfielder was influencing the game in a different manner to normal. Otherwise, his poise did pretty much sum up the difference between the two sides’ approaches. Whereas the Italians have famously adopted the controlling Spanish possession game, Germany play much harder and looser. Their entire system is based on producing a meaningful attack within eight seconds of gaining possession.

The Italians often made them wait much longer than that to actually get it. Indeed, their possession eventually exposed the one major flaw in this German team: their defence is just not dependable.

With only 20 minutes gone, Antonio Cassano evaded three German markers all too easily for Balotelli to render Holger Badtsuber’s presence irrelevant and power home the opener from the cross.

With the Germans having been on a world record run of 15 consecutive wins in competitive games, it was the first time they had been behind in the entire championship. For the youngest team in the tournament, this was a big test of character and maturity.

On 36 minutes, it got even bigger.

Indeed, the second goal was the same story as the first, just with different details. With Germany again over-committed and leaving too many gaps, Italy quickly broke for Balotelli — again — to power the ball home.

This strike wasn’t just about brawn though. It was a thing of beauty, with Balotelli hitting a perfect strike into the top corner with extreme prejudice.

Worse for Germany, despite Gigi Buffon having to pull out a few stops, he didn’t exactly have to pull out all of them. As Spain have illustrated, this is the real advantage of possession football. With Italy so far ahead, it meant that could keep ball and weren’t under any pressure to risk losing it by attacking.

Germany, by contrast, had to go for it. Then more than ever.

Löw at least signalled that they would by introducing the livewire Marco Reus and free-scoring Miroslav Klose for the completely ineffective pair of Lukas Podolski and Mario Gomez at half time.

Reus did have some effect, as illustrated by his brilliant free-kick which was just about parried away by Buffon. The very fact that came from a set-piece, though, illustrated how little difficulty the Italians were having with the general German attacking.

On a few occasions, Mesut Ozil managed to get between the lines but he never quite had the support. Indeed, a relaxed Italy still looked likeliest to score on the counter, with Balotelli almost getting in again.

Balotelli eventually had to go off injured for Antonio Di Natale, with Löw then deciding to play his somewhat desperate final card after the stoppage: forward Thomas Muller was brought on for right-back Jerome Boateng.

It only left Germany more exposed. Marchisio should even have killed the game completely in the 75th minute .but shot wide.

The miss meant Germany were still alive. Ozil’s late penalty for Federico Balzaretti’s handball gave them an extra jolt of energy. But it wasn’t to be enough.

It all means that Italy are now in the position to upset the most established order of all: Spain’s utter dominance of the ball and international football.

Subs for Germany: Muller for Boateng (71); Reus for Podolski (45); Klose for Gomez (45).

Subs for Italy: Diamanti for Cassano (57); Di Natale for Balotelli (69); Motta for Montolivo (75).