Die Mannschaft cruise to victory - Germany v Portugal Analysis

Pepe shows his hot-headedness once again...

It was a battle of two of the best four sides in the world according to FIFA rankings butthe reality was far from that as Alex Johnson explains...

Germany cruised through their opening match against a highly talented Portugal side by thrashing Cristiano Ronaldo and company 4-0. Joachim Low decided against picking an out and out striker but that didn't matter as attacking midfielder Thomas Muller bagged a hat-trick in a bruising attack on Paulo Bento's men. Portugal were not helped by Pepe's sending off in the first half, while they also suffered injuries to vital squad members. 

Portugal were backed by lots of support in the match as their historical ties with Brazil meant this was almost a home game for A Seleccao. Arguably, they started the brighter of the two sides with Ronaldo testing Manuel Neuer from an acute angle.

However, Germany won a penalty on ten minutes when Muller was dragged down by Joao Pereira and the Bayern Munich man converted the spot kick himself on his 50th appearance for the national side. 

From then on, Die Mannschaft looked comfortable against the Portuguese, often breaking dangerously from midfield with even defensive midfielder Sami Khedira pushing forward to open Portugal's defence. 

Bento had opted to play a lone striker, Hugo Almeida, with support from Luis Nani and Ronaldo from the wings, almost acting as three upfront when they had the ball, while the Portuguese set out for Miguel Veloso to act as a link between front and back from the centre of the park. 

Germany, perhaps all too aware of the offensive threat of their opponents, had tightened up in defence with skipper Philipp Lahm supporting Khedira just in front of the back four, preferring to employ Jerome Boateng and Benedikt Howedes in the full back positions. This allowed Mario Gotze, Tony Kroos and Arsenal's Mesut Ozil to push forward and support Muller. 

Bento's plans were thrown a little awry when Almeida limped off to be replaced by Braga's Eder, although there was to be no change to the system following the substitution. 

Germany doubled their advantage in the simplest of fashion when Mats Hummels' bullet header screamed into the back of the net from a corner before Portugal's problems got even worse when Pepe was shown a straight red card for thrusting his head forward at Thomas Muller.

There was an obvious suggestion that the Bayern Munich star had made a meal of an earlier hand-off from Pepe, but the reaction was needless. Diego Costa seemingly got away with something similar earlier in the tournament but the referee had no doubt and sent Pepe off. It was a silly thing to do by the centre-half but certainly not the first indiscretion in his career.

Two goals down and with only ten men after just 37 minutes, Bento had wanted half time to come quickly for his side to re-group and see what they could salvage from the remainder of the match.

Germany had other ideas and Muller struck again, proving quickest to react in a crowded box to fire home on the stroke of half-time to grab his second and Germany's third to effectively end the tie as a contest. 

The second half was all about Portugal not getting an absolute hammering and in conceding only one more goal, which was Muller's hat-trick, you could say that they were let off lightly. Another concern for Bento was seeing full back, Fabio Coentrao, stretchered off with a hamstring injury, which is likely to end the tournament for the Real Madrid player.   

So where do either side go from here? 

Germany can reflect on this performance as a job well done, probably needing just one win from their next two group games - against weaker opposition in theory - to qualify for the second round and with a strong start to their goals scored, they probably won't need goal difference to get through. 

The other Group G match saw USA beat Ghana and Germany will be expecting to comfortably beat either of these two sides. As for Portugal, the expectation will also be for them to beat Ghana and the USA, although it all depends on how much confidence is in the side after such a drubbing by Germany.  

Pepe's sending off yesterday will mean that Portugal will be without him for the next two group games, he will probably be replaced by Valencia captain Ricardo Costa. 

Do they need to change the system? I don't think so, their strong attack will enjoy plenty of space against a Ghana side that likes to go forward themselves, which Portugal should be able to exploit. They will have to start brightly against the USA, who will still be buoyed by their win over Ghana, which contained the quickest goal in this year's World Cup. The strike Clint Dempsey scored came after 30 seconds and became the fifth quickest goal in World Cup history. 

Portugal's talisman, Cristiano Ronaldo, was largely inefficient against the Germans, mainly due to the fact that the game was lost at half time. As such his tiring Portugal side were just going through the motions in the second period. Portugal's next match is in Manaus and having played against the Germans with ten men for more than half a game, Bento may look into making changes against the United States in the tropical heat of the Arena Amazonia. 

Another option for Bento may be to play two upfront with the experienced Helder Postiga alongside Eder, or they could push Ronaldo more centrally as a lone striker.  

Germany will probably look to gain maximum points from their next match so they can rest players for their final group game. You would imagine Low to keep the same side for the next game against Ghana as they look to maintain a positive start, and the introduction of Miroslav Klose may have to wait until the final game against USA. Klose has 14 career World Cup goals, level with compatriot Gerd Muller and one behind Ronaldo of Brazil.  

Germany's brutal deconstruction of Portugal sends a clear message in the opening matches that this German side have built on the last World Cup when they scored four goals on three occasions but lost in the semi-finals to Spain. Long gone are the days of dour German football with the end product being substance over style. 

One thing is for certain for the Portuguese, defeat in their next match and they will be surprisingly out of the World Cup at such an early stage.