Back us, Brazil: Germany

RIO DE JANEIRO — Germany have made a public plea for the support of Brazil’s heartbroken football fans when they face Argentina in the final on Sunday and have already formulated a plan to contain Lionel Messi.

Brazil suffered the worst result in their history in Tuesday’s semi-final but, after many of their fans sportingly applauded the masterclass that was delivered by Joachim Low’s team, Germany now hope that playing in the Maracana against the hosts’ biggest rivals will feel like a home game.

“We hope and think that all Brazilians will support us,” said Hansi Flick, Germany’s assistant coach. “It was fantastic how fairly they reacted after the semi-final. That was a big gesture.”

Ostensibly, the match would appear to be a contest between the most complete squad at the World Cup (Germany) and Argentina’s Messi, who has been the most dominant player in world football during the past five years.

Germany will not attempt to man-mark Messi but, with many of their players part of the Bayern Munich team that destroyed Barcelona in the Champions League last year, they are confident about their strategy.

“We’ve played a lot of matches against Argentina and we’ve also got a plan but we’re not going to reveal that,” said Flick.

“All the players and coaching staff had a great time together watching the other semi-final and obviously we saw the way Holland were able to keep Messi in check.”

Benedikt Howedes, the Germany left-back, said Messi must be collectively neutralised and knows that the 7-1 win against Brazil will be rendered meaningless should they lose.

“Messi is a fantastic player, one of the best in the world, but so was (Cristiano) Ronaldo,” he said.

“You can’t play alone against him. We’ve got to work as a collective against him because we’re not going to be able to beat him one-on-one. If we can defend decently as a team, we’ll contain him.

“Many people are giving us slaps on the back, but we can’t make the mistake that it’s already over, far from it. People are saying in Germany that the title is almost in our pocket, but the Argentines will fight to take the title home. If we don’t win, the semi-final will just be consigned to the archives of history.”