‘Statement of intent’: What future Women’s World Cup opponents must learn from Germany’s dismantling of Morocco – tactical analysis

After seeing Australia, the Netherlands, and England scrape victories, and Canada and France held to goalless draws during the first few days of the Womens World Cup, it would be a surprise if another of the pre-tournament favourites, Germany, did not go into their opening game against debutants Morocco, taking place at the Melbourne Rectangular Stadium, with some trepidation.

However, as it turned out, any who had doubts about their capabilities neednt have worried, with Martina Voss-Tecklenburgs Euro 2022 runners-up securing a convincing 6-0 win and laying down the gauntlet for the other 31 teams as they outlined their title credentials. It wasnt a completely one-sided affair, with Morocco providing a few tests early on, but there was no doubt that the final scoreline was a good reflection of how Germany grew into the game.

Helping them to be so dominant was a great deal of pre-tournament planning and a well-thought-out game plan, and this tactical analysis will look at their tactics in closer detail to see why they managed to control proceedings and how they managed to restrict Morocco from themselves settling and playing their game.

Lineups

Germany had not escaped the pre-tournament injury crisis in the womens game, with right-back Giulia Gwinn and Bayern Munich Frauen teammate Linda Dallmann, both of whom had starred in their run to last years final, being ruled out of appearing at the World Cup with long-term injuries.

They were also missing Wolfsburg Frauen midfielder Lena Oberdorf for this match and had doubts over Marina Hegering. So there was a need for some brave calls to be made and for some players to be put in unfamiliar roles to cover their absences. Influential forward Svenja Huth was one of those, with her dropping to right-back for this encounter, whilst a double pivot of Lyon Féminins Sara Däbritz and Chelsea Womens Melanie Leupolz was included in place of Oberdorf.

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