Football fans fearing a summer bereft of the beautiful game need not have worried, as the Confederations Cup has served up thrills aplenty. We have seen exciting games, attacking football and some brilliant goals, and now the best two teams in the competition will contest the final. Germany and Chile drew 1-1 in the group stage and their final clash should prove to be another tight, tense, nervy affair, and a fascinating tactical battle.
Germany are the World Cup holders and favourites to win the Jules Rimet trophy again next summer, but they were made third favourites for this tournament when they announced their squad. Headlines were generated by who was absent rather than those that were present: Thomas Muller, Toni Kroos, Mesut Ozil, Sami Khedira, Mario Gotze, Mats Hummels, Jerome Boateng and Manuel Neuer were among the established stars left out. Instead Joachim Low went with a young, experimental squad to give unheralded players a chance to stake a claim for a place on the plane to Russia in 2018. And how they have delivered.
Germany are now the favourites to beat Chile in the final after thrashing Mexico 4-1 in the semis. They have netted 11 times in their four matches, and while their defending has been uncharacteristically error prone, they have been a joy to behold going forwards. Leon Goretzka, Timo Werner and Lars Stindl have all made extremely strong cases to be included in the World Cup squad and Muller must be a bit nervous about keeping his place in the side.
Chile were made favourites along with Portugal before the tournament began, but they have been slightly underwhelming. They have made it through to the final, but they have so far only won one game. That was their first match, where they ground out a 2-0 victory over a sluggish Cameroon. They then earned a 1-1 draw with Germany and followed it up with a disappointing 1-1 draw with Australia. Opinion was split as to who would prevail in their semi-final meeting with Portugal, and the two sides could not be separated in 120 turgid minutes. It went to penalties and Chile kept their cool to win 3-0, aided largely by the sensational reflexes of goalkeeper Claudio Bravo – something Man City fans did not see much of last season.
If you assess Germany’s form – lots of exciting, open games with plenty of chances for either side and bags of goals – you would expect a magnificent final. But if you examine Chile’s form – three draws and a win, just four goals scored and a miserly two goals conceded – then you would expect a snooze fest. It is likely to be somewhere between the two. Germany will take risks and leave gaps for Chile to exploit, but they will be hassled and harried all over the pitch by the hard pressing, hard tackling, high energy Chileans. It might not be a beautiful game, but it should be full of passion and an intriguing tactical clash between differing styles.
It will also be interesting to see what each manager learned from the previous 1-1 draw and how the teams have improved since then. Germany have gone from strength to strength and scored plenty of goals, and they are a young side improving with every game. Chile have not exactly set the tournament alight since then, but they are extremely difficult to beat.
The draw looks an interesting bet at 2/1 with green listed bookmaker Bet365 as Chile are so hard to break down, and 1-1 also looks interesting at 29/5 with 10Bet. It could well go the distance, and Chile have shown they are experts at shootouts. But no team in the world can hold a torch to Germany when it comes to success at penalty shootouts, and they also have the youthful legs to win it in extra-time – by which time Chile may be tired from pressing hard and chasing Germany all over the pitch all match – so Germany to lift the trophy looks a good bet at 3/4 with Bet365. Both teams to score looks another good option, mainly because the previous game was 1-1 and Germany have scored
and conceded in every game so far in this tournament due to their gung-ho attacking nature. You can get 10/11 with William Hill on this.
Calculators
