France face Germany in their opening match in Group F
France face Germany in their opening match in Group F

France v Germany: Why Karim Benzema and Tomas Muller were recalled to international football


It is the striking comeback derby. France against Germany could be Karim Benzema against Thomas Muller in the battle of the surprise recalls. Didier Deschamps and Joachim Low swallowed their pride, turned to the men they spurned and gave a retro look to their forward lines.

Deschamps won a World Cup without Benzema while Low won one with Muller; France have prospered without the Real Madrid forward whereas Germany floundered when the Bayern Munich attacker was cast unwillingly into a premature international retirement. Benzema has become more prolific over the years and while Muller has served as more of a supplier, both still promise goals.

CLICK HERE to view the FREE betting guide
CLICK TO READ our free exclusive Euro 2020 betting guide

Between them, they have scored 646 times (Benzema 387, Muller 269). Benzema has had three of his six most prolific seasons since turning 30, scoring 30, 27 and 30 times; all coming since Cristiano Ronaldo left Real Madrid. Muller has got a more unremarkable 38 club goals in that time, whereas he scored 32 in 2015-16 alone. But with 42 assists in the last two seasons, he has never been more consistently creative.

The paradox, perhaps, is that each country needs him to become more the player he was than the one he has become. Benzema prospered for years at Real as Ronaldo’s foil. Olivier Giroud assumed those duties for France; he was the selfless sidekick to Kylian Mbappe and Antoine Griezmann even as he rarely struck himself, especially against elite opposition (only four of his 44 France goals have come in major tournaments and they were against Switzerland, Romania and Iceland).

Giroud has not outscored Benzema in a club campaign since 2009-10 when the target man was in Ligue 2 with Tours, but if Deschamps may want a more prolific version of the Chelsea striker, the key part may be having a sharper variant. Giroud has played just 134 minutes of club football since February.

Euro 2020 Betting Preview - The Home Nations

The dynamic has changed since Benzema’s last major tournament. Griezmann was in and out of the side in the 2014 World Cup, failing to score; a 15-year-old Mbappe was obviously nowhere near the team. Benzema had the most shots in the tournament (31) and the most on target (16). He scored three times, and France exited in the quarter-finals.

Four years later, Giroud famously failed to register a shot at goal in France’s 2018 campaign but they won the World Cup with Griezmann and Mbappe the joint second top scorers on four. Indeed, in Benzema’s absence, Griezmann also won the Euro 2016 Golden Boot with six. But in 2018, Giroud supplied eight key passes: among out-and-out centre-forwards, only Harry Kane and Luis Suarez provided more. Yet Benzema’s three best seasons for assists all came when he had Ronaldo alongside him, when it made sense for him to put another first.

Muller arrives at Euro 2020 with a curiously imbalanced record: in three of his five major tournaments, he has failed to score. In the other two, the World Cups of 2010 and 2014, he got five goals apiece. With Jogi Low bemoaning that Germany have taken too few of their chances, that clinical touch is what they require; his five goals in 2014 came from 15 shots.

While he is shooting less these days – he had 43 Bundesliga shots this season compared to 77 in 2015-16, partly because Robert Lewandowski assumes those duties for Bayern – his chance conversion rate in all competitions this season is a healthy 22.5, whereas Timo Werner’s is 13.07, dipping to 8.33 in the Premier League. Muller’s tends to be better – 22 percent in his most prolific year of 2015-16, higher still in 2013-14 – though while Werner was an expected goals underachiever this season, he normally overperforms his (even if in 2016-17, he got five Bundesliga goals from a Werner-esque xG of 10.01).

Click to download our FREE Euro 2020 wallchart
Click to download our FREE Euro 2020 wallchart

But Muller emerged as a finisher, most obviously in the 2010 World Cup. He became a provider. He was tied with Lionel Messi for the most assists in Europe’s top five leagues in 2019-20, with 21. He was the outright leader this season, with 18. InStat’s profile of players he resembles most statistically puts Marco Reus as the nearest thing to his doppelganger; Julian Brandt, another who is not in Jogi Low’s squad, has profiled similarly to Muller over previous seasons so, had he not been recalled, Germany could have been without three of their greatest creative forces, but were such statistics available a decade ago, the conclusions could have been different.

The names that figure most often in such comparisons for Benzema are Harry Kane and, perhaps surprisingly, Anthony Martial. It indicates that if Benzema is a rival for Giroud, he is actually a replacement for the injured Martial. But if France have won two World Cups with non-scoring strikers, in Stephane Guivarc’h, they now have Real Madrid’s top scorer. The team who did that in 2016 won the last European Championships.

Paul Gascoigne celebrating after scoring one of England's greatest goals
CLICK HERE TO Relive Euro 96 top five goals


More from Sporting Life

Like what you've read?

MOST READ FOOTBALL

Sporting Life
Join for free!
Access to exclusive features all for FREE - No monthly subscription fee
Race Replays
My stable horse tracker
giftOffers and prize draws
newsExclusive content

FOOTBALL TIPS

We are committed to Safer Gambling and have a number of self-help tools to help you manage your gambling. We also work with a number of independent charitable organisations who can offer help and answers any questions you may have.
Gamble Aware LogoGamble Helpline LogoGamstop LogoGordon Moody LogoSafer Gambling Standard LogoGamban Logo18+ LogoTake Time To Think Logo