German's Klose to two titles.

On paper this was the pick of the quarter-finals. Germany and Argentina looked fairly evenly matched. Both played attacking football and looked slightly fragile at the back. Both had in their last 16 games had fortuitous decisions go for them, Mexico seemed to be holding their own before Tevez scored from an offside position, Germany had seen a Frank Lampard goal not given despite it clearing the line by a good yard. In these matches they had already seen a gripping game between Uruguay and Ghana, a game where football produces the kind of drama you can't script. The Dutch had, as an opener relieved Brazil of a semi-final place despite going a goal down.

With one semi-final decided it was Germany and Argentina to decide who would face either Spain or Paraguay. So far in this tournament Germany have had one of the players of the tournament in Ozil and Argentina have had Messi inspiring and Tevez with Higain almost scoring at will. There has been talk of Argentina's and Diego's tactical knowledge, but so far, so good.

The game started brightly for the Germans and got brighter as the day went on. To score your first goal in the third minute of a game is a relief. Schweinsteiger puts in a superb ball from a free kick and Thomas Mueller is there to flick the ball home with Romero flapping in the wind. The defending is as poor as the delivery was impressive. no first man to attack the ball so a free passage to play into. no one really goes with the runner so he has an easy job of getting to the ball, there's no pressure to put him off, but taking nothing away from the delivery, it's really is superb. Schweinsteiger has really made his presence count in this tournament, particularly against the Australians and more importantly against the English.

At the break Argentina had the best of the last 10-15 minutes of the half bur had allowed the Germans far too much time in the midfield. Ozil had a quiet first half but Schweinsteiger was invited to dominate the middle of the park and he gratefully accepted. For large parts of the first 30 minutes Messi was having to drop into hi own half to pick up the all, World Player of the Year you may be, but there's a long way to goal from there. Such was the dominance of Schweinsteiger and the slightly overshadowed, but (thus far) utterly reliable Khedira that Messi hardly touched the ball in the last third of the field and service to Higuain and Tevez was stilted. Some of the responsibility lies with Di Maria who wasted a number of threatening positions and ran into dead ends, football intelligence doesn't seem to be something he's blessed with.

The second half starts with Argentina attacking and really pushing forward, Germany take their time to get started and are somewhat fortunate to still be infront after the opening 15 minutes. he Argentine midfield seems to improve and start to build attacks themselves, leaving Messi free further up the pitch, whilst he's busy he never seems to find that end ball. The game goes end to end and starts to stretch out, this can only help Argentina who have been crowded out in the final third of the pitch, but on 67 minutes Germany get their second goal and Klose his 13th in World Cup football From then on, there was only going to be one winner. Germany start to redevelop their ppressing game, as soon sa the Argentines cross the halfway line they press the all. It all becomes very condensed in the German half and again there is no room to move. Argentina become increasingly compact there is no real width to the Argentines game and they become increasingly predictable. Di Maria plays in Portugal and maybe you can see the gulf in class in the latter parts of the tournament.

When Germany score their third in 74th minute the game is over and the Argentines look as if they'd board the plane home there and then if possible. It has been questioned, but when tactics and a change in styles were needed the Argentine bench came up with nothing. No width left them toothless, as the Germans could deal with the play in front of them. The fourth goal in the 89th minute sealed the game and brought Klose level with Gerd Muller on the all time scoring list, and jut one behind the real Ronaldo. The deployment of Messi behind the front two strikers ended up being a hindrance in this game. Where Barcelona deploy him on the left and he drifts inside would have been a far more effective ploy in this game. He never had the room to really run at people and the few balls that the Argies got into the box had the Germans looking worried. Higuain is good in the air and Tevez is always a menace for loose balls. There was no real change in styles or tactics, a 2 goals down there was still time, but nothing changed. You also got the feeling Maxi Rodriguez wasn't the best choice, Veron, whilst not dynamic keeps the ball moving exceptionally well, he only take 1, maybe 2 touches then plays it on, he creates space and owns space. Maxi got lost in the mix for vast stretches of the game. Plus there was no one behind Messi that could really give them some spark, so service to those front three ended up being horribly limited.

Take nothing away from Germany though, they dominated this game and played exceptional counter-attacking football. The chances they got were put away in clinical style, Klose should have had three but the one that got away, got away over the bar by a good 10 yards and rising. Ozil didn't have anywhere near the level of performance he produced against England, but it didn't matter, Mueller was a handful throughout, Khedira did everything he needed to well and Schweinsteiger gave another dominant display, you get the feeling the injury to Ballack might have been a blessing in disguise. Boateng had n excellent game, having looked the weak link in the last 16 game, he really stepped up here and dealt with both Maxi and Di Maria excellently. How their style will match up against the Spanish tiki-taka football will be interesting, and how they use the possession they get will be crucial. This is the time for Ozil to ramp up his game, as playmakers will be at a premium.