All Time World Cup! 2nd Round...
Rummenigge 77, Muller 79
Wembley
Like so many teams, Belgium could look back on several past encounters with Germany in which they had cause to feel hard done by.
Belgium’s particular catalogue of Germanic woe included defeat in the Euro 72 semi final on home soil, a late, late loss in the 1980 final, and highly controversial defeat in the second round of the USA ’94 World Cup, when the Red Devils felt as if every key refereeing decision went against them.
For their part, the Germans were feeling confident and with good reason. Despite losing the 1966 World Cup Final on this ground, Germany had subsequently won Euro 96 there, and had become the first country to win at the ‘New Wembley’.
As well as the benefit of historical precedence over Belgium, they had that most valuable of commodities –good form. Their wins over Mexico and Austria had been clinically efficient. The Germans began this game intent on a measured, precise style. Sadly for the spectators, Belgium also wanted to be cautious. With both sides reliant on the counter attack, very little of note happened in the first half.
In the second half, Beckenbauer, unneeded in defence, was able to step up into midfield, but the tightly packed Belgian midfield and defence meant it was still difficult to create an opening.
Then, with twenty minutes to go, the heavens above Wembley opened and sudden, heavy downpour of rain turned things the way of Germany, and one German in particular.
After contracting a form of malaria during World War II, Fritz Walter disliked warm sunshine, and became famous for playing his best football in the worst weather conditions. To this day in Germany, heavy rain is often referred to as “Fritz Walter’s weather.” His most famous game was the 1954 World Cup final victory over Hungary –in the rain.
Walter happily took on the mantle of lifting his side. He danced through the mud to fire a shot which Pfaff did brilliantly to tip over. From the resulting corner, Brehme floated the ball into the box and Walter rose to flick on to Karl-Heinz Rummenigge who headed home.
Just two minutes later Rummenigge took a pass from his old partner Paul Breitner and turned to set up Walter. Meeuws read the bounce, but Walter read that there would be no bounce, as the ball stuck in the mud. He dug the ball out for a first-time shot that was again well saved by Pfaff, but Gerd Muller was on hand to scramble home the rebound.
Pfaff, who played for Bayern Munich for six seasons, had done nothing wrong, but in just a few minutes Germany had raised their game and eased away. Belgium just didn’t the personnel to match Muller’s cutting edge.
Van Himst and Ceulemans tried to fashion a late comeback –they had both shown enough in the tournament to justify their place at the top table, as had Gerets– but Beckenbauer, Vogts and Kohler were more than capable of locking things down for the final ten minutes or so. Belgium had failed to break their German hoodoo, but at the start of the tournament, they would probably have settled for reaching the second round.
For Germany, it was on to the quarter finals and their most serious test yet –Uruguay.
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