Will France finally have its revenge on Germany?

Most of the players contesting the July 4 World Cup quarter-final between France and Germany may not yet have been born when the two sides contested a 1982 World Cup semifinal in Spain, but that game’s shadow looms long over Friday’s one. It was a traumatic encounter in which the glorious attacking style of the Michel Platini-era Bleus was rattled by one of the filthiest tackles ever seen at the World Cup, and then thwarted in the tournament’s first ever penalty shootout. (Before 1978, a game whose score was even at the end of the regulation 90 minutes plus the additional 30 minutes of extra time was settled by the toss of a coin!)

With the score at 1-1, Platini sent French defender Patrick Battiston clean through on goal with a glorious pass. German goalkeeper Toni Schumacher made no attempt to play the ball, launching a kung-fu style hip check that left Battiston unconscious and minus three teeth. Never mind the red card and long-term ban Schumacher’s violent intervention would have earned today, his action wasn’t penalized at all. Although France took a 3-1 lead in extra time, the Germans clawed their way back, and then won the first ever World Cup penalty shootout.

The Germans again eliminated France in the semifinal in Mexico four years later, leaving it to the 2014 team to avenge the injustice of 1982. 

Much has changed in both football powers since 1982. France, even back then, had a more cosmopolitan team that included the likes of Guadeloupe-born Marius Trésor and Mali-born Jean Tigana, and a handful of other players of immigrant origins. The French famously won their first World Cup in 1998 with a team hailed as “black, white and beur [a term for people from the Maghreb]” – and half of today’s French squad in Brazil has roots in Africa.

Germany may be three-time champions, but it won its last title in 24 years ago. Still, if German football has been somewhat in the doldrums since, it has also entirely remade itself: The German lineup that starts against France is likely to include Jérôme Boateng (also eligible for Ghana), Sami Khedira (whose father is Tunisian), Mesut Özil (whose parents are Turkish) while potential substitutes Miroslav Klose and Lukas Podolski are both Polish by birth. And had defender Shkodran Mustafi not been injured in their previous game, the defender of Macedonian origin would certainly have started, too.

Nor is it simply by measure of diversity that the German Mannschaft that has changed: Germany today plays a game of fleet-footed attacking flair quite unrecognizable in comparison to the muscular physicality of earlier incarnations. Much like the French, in fact.

Friday’s game, therefore, promises to be a festival of attacking football; neither of these teams knows any other way – although both will struggle to create chances.

That's because they're fairly evenly matched, particularly in midfield.

France’s central midfield duo of Paul Pogba and Blaise Matuidi – with Yohan Cabaye further forward as a playmaker – has overwhelmed the sides they’ve come up against, with Pogba being one of the tournament’s standout players.

Although coach Didier Deschamps has fielded both Karim Benzema and Olivier Giroud against weaker opposition, against Germany he may be inclined instead to exploit the weakness on the Germans’ defensive flanks exposed by Algeria, and drop Giroud to the bench, instead starting winger Antoine Griezmann. The Real Sociedad wide man, together with Mathieu Valbuena who has more than filled the shoes of the absent Franck Ribéry and has been one of Les Bleus standout performers, will prove a handful for a German side so bereft of full-backs that coach Jogi Löw is under pressure to return his captain, Philip Lahm, to that position from the holding midfield role in which he’s played in Brazil until now.

Center-back Raphaël Varane, who demonstrates the passing and vision of an accomplished midfielder, is another who has impressed for France, but choosing a center-back to partner him poses a dilemma for Deschamps: Laurent Koscielny may be the more accomplished defender, but the Arsenal man’s temperament may be deemed suspect by his coach; Mamadou Sakho may be fired up and a great motivator of his teammates, but any Liverpool fan will confirm that he’s extremely vulnerable on his right foot.

The Germans pose a more mobile threat than any faced by France thus far, with no recognized striker but a pacey and clever attacking trident drawn from three of Thomas Muller, Özil, Mario Götze and Andre Schürrle likely to be deployed in front of Lahm, Toni Kroos and one of Khedira and Bastian Schweinsteiger. Löw will welcome the return of stylish center-back Matts Hummels, giving him more defensive options to either replace the pace-challenged Per Mertesacker or field three centerbacks.

Either way, both sides have plenty of firepower, particularly in the midfield where this game will be fought and won.