After two thrilling legs in the UEFA Nations League quarterfinals, Germany advanced to the next stage, overcoming Italy 5-4 on aggregate.
As we all witnessed, the tactical battle between Luciano Spalletti and Julian Nagelsmann was intense throughout both matches, making it the exciting encounter we anticipated.
However, there was another tactical battle throughout both matches that often goes unnoticed: set-pieces.
In both matches, set plays led to crucial goals and dangerous chances.
Set-piece analysis has become a crucial aspect of match preparation, followed by focused training on the planned strategies to achieve the best possible outcomes.
Analysing set pieces is a tactical confrontation and a battle between coaches, with reactions from both sides throughout the two matches, much like any other aspect of the game.
For example, the attacking team exploits the opposing side’s weaknesses in the first leg, prompting the latter to adjust their strategy to address them in the return leg.
Consequently, the attacking team must then modify their tactics to remain effective, following the same loop as in other aspects of the game.
In this tactical analysis, we will examine the set-piece battle between Nagelsmann and his set-piece coach, Mads Buttgereit, against Spalletti and his assistants.
Germany’s Attacking Corners
Starting with Germany’s attacking corners, Italy defended corners with a man-marking defending system.
In the photo below, Italy defends with two zonal defenders (yellow), two green edge-of-the-box players for the rebound (one of them defends short corners), and six-man markers.
After explaining Italy’s defending scheme, let’s start with Germany’s most effective routine.
This routine targeted the area ahead of the near post and led to the winning goal in the first leg.
— Footie Clips (@FootieClips) March 24, 2025
In the photo below, the targeted player is Leon Goretzka (orange), who targets the area ahead of the near post, having a far starting position from the blind side of the two zonal defenders.
Two green players start behind them to prevent the two zonal defenders (yellow) from reacting.
One of them runs to the outside of the six-yard line, starting from the first zonal defender’s blind side, to make him worried about him and drag him out of his position.
The other one blocks the second zonal defender from his blind side.
Regarding the targeted player himself, he gives his marker a small push to ensure he is separated from him, then runs to the targeted area.
At the same time, Antonio Rüdiger (pink) runs behind the two zonal defenders to frame the ball path in case the cross passes them.
To ensure that he gets rid of his marker, he moves around his close mate (black arrow), who pushes his marker towards Rüdiger’s marker to prevent him from tracking Rüdiger.
This push is so clear below.
As shown below, the plan succeeded.
Two players were ready to receive the cross, while the green player moved to the far post to frame the goal in case the targeted player flicked the ball.
They also had good ideas to target the middle area inside the six-yard box.
— Footie Clips (@FootieClips) March 24, 2025
In the photo below, Germany use the same green players in the six-yard box in a different way to target the middle area.
One of them turns around the goalkeeper to take his attention and block him, while the other turns back to the goal to block Rüdiger’s marker in orange, known as a screen.
As shown below, the screen is successful, and now we can see the targeted player free while an attacker moves in front of the zonal defenders to take their attention in a decoy run (green arrow).
At the same time, two players (white) go to the far post to frame the goal.
The plan was successful, but it was a foul for Gianluigi Donnarumma who always falls down after any small touch to make the referee whistle for a foul.
They also faced the same problem when they targeted the far post.
— Footie Clips (@FootieClips) March 24, 2025
As shown in the photo below, they tried to target the far post while having two following players (green) in the path between the goalkeeper and the target to make sure he wouldn’t claim the ball.
However, he also used his trick to exploit the fact that he is the goalkeeper, falling to the ground after a simple touch to draw a foul.
In other cases, he could also bravely push the attacker who tries to block him to claim the ball, as shown below.
In the second half, they found an alternative solution to avoid this problem.
— Footie Clips (@FootieClips) March 24, 2025
As in the photo below, they assign Joshua Kimmich as the taker from the right (instead of Leroy Sané) to send a far out-swinging cross out of the six-yard box to avoid this issue.
They use the same idea of having two players inside the six-yard box to avoid the reaction of the zonal defenders.
At the same time, the other attackers start in a pack, using the principle of underloading: they ask the green player to run as a decoy, dragging his marker with him, and evacuating the area for the three targeted players.
As shown below, the three targeted players (orange) are in a good position to win the ball while their man marker can’t focus with them moving into their backs because they track the ball in the air in the other direction, which is known as “orientation problem”.
They continued to exploit the same idea in the second leg, especially since Italy increased the number of zonal defenders to three and four in some cases.
However, the most significant corner in the second match was Jamal Musiala‘s goal.
— Footie Clips (@FootieClips) March 24, 2025
In the photo below, Musiala asks the taker to play it quickly while Italy’s players argue with the referee.
Honestly, it may be an individual reaction from such intelligent players, or maybe they were asked to play quickly because Italy made those arguments in the first leg, too, making it too late to reorganise.
Anyway, we can learn from this action that fast set-pieces can pay back many times as a good principle, exploiting the fact that there is no offside in corners, and we can remember Divock Origi’s legendary goal against Barcelona.
Italy’s Attacking Corners
Going to Italy’s attacking corners, Italy was good at targeting the same area where they conceded the goal in the first leg: ahead of the near post.
— Footie Clips (@FootieClips) March 24, 2025
In the photo below, Germany defend with five zonal defenders (yellow), two green edge-of-the-box players (one goes shortly when needed) and three man markers.
Italy’s plan is to ask Alessandro Bastoni to start from the middle to be on the blind side of the first two zonal defenders.
He also starts next to his mate and turns around him to delay his man marker.
As shown below, his man marker is forced to turn around from the other direction, which can create a separation between them, allowing him to reach the targeted area before his man marker.
Regarding the finest zonal defender, he focuses on the ball, which underscores Bastoni’s timing of movement, making it hard for the defender to notice the danger.
Besides the starting position away from the first zonal defender’s view, the most important factor in making this plan successful is the position of the first two zonal defenders, who are inside the goalmouth.
This makes it take them longer to reach the target area (near the corner of the six-yard box).
As shown below, the plan works while Italy’s other player frames the goal, ready to receive any possible headed pass (flick-on).
In the second match, Germany were ready to react defensively.
— Footie Clips (@FootieClips) March 24, 2025
In the photo below, you can see that the first zonal defender has taken a few steps forward from the goalmouth to be ready to defend this area quickly.
He also always checks his shoulders, trying to see any upcoming danger from his blind side, as shown below.
Once he makes sure that the ball isn’t directly towards the ball, he steps forward to the corner of the six-yard box to be ready to get the first touch, as shown below.
However, Italy were ready with a variation.
— Footie Clips (@FootieClips) March 24, 2025
As shown below, Italy used an out-swinging cross this time because most teams ask their zonal line to shift more up and toward the middle area and the far post due to the expected ball trajectory.
You can see how Germany’s zonal line acted against the out-swinging cross below (yellow) and the goalkeeper’s starting position.
As an assistant factor, Italy used a short-option attacker, trying to drag the first zonal defender a little forward to help the short-option defender after the pass.
Italy had two players free from man-marking.
One of them (pink) started from the six-yard box to block the first zonal defender from his blind side, trying to push him outside more to empty the low-level cross trajectory.
The other free attacker (orange) makes the curved run shown below to receive the ball suddenly.
The plan works, but the cross isn’t optimum, as shown below.
The idea of targeting the near post with a sudden out-swinging cross behind the first zonal defender has become common recently.
Germany has done that recently, too.
— Footie Clips (@FootieClips) March 24, 2025
Conclusion
In this analysis, we attempted to decode the set-piece battle that unfolded between the two teams across both matches, resulting in significant tactical variety and changes.
In this set-piece analysis, we highlighted how set pieces played a crucial role in determining the outcome and securing the German national team’s qualification to the UEFA Nations League semi-final, where they will face Portugal.
