I visited the Philadelphia Museum of Art before coming here today, and standing before Thomas Eakins' *The Gross Clinic* — that masterpiece of precision and drama — I thought to myself, yes, this is what Florian Wirtz does to a defence: he opens it up like a surgeon, unhurried, inevitable. Curacao's midfield, for all their Caribbean spirit, simply cannot contain a German engine room that pulses with the rhythm of Wirtz and Musiala operating in tandem — this is not a contest of equals, it is a canvas waiting to be painted. I see three goals here, perhaps more if Germany decide to truly express themselves, though I suspect they will ease off the throttle once the gallery applause has been earned.

Germany's midfield engine — led by Wirtz and Musiala — will simply overwhelm Curacao's compact but limited defensive structure; with 17 estimated attacks to Curacao's one, this is less a tactical battle and more a question of how clinical the Germans choose to be. Rüdiger anchoring the sweeper role gives Germany that characteristically composed, organized backline — the kind of defensive discipline I genuinely admire — while Curacao's entire back unit, Obispo included, will spend the match firefighting rather than building anything meaningful. I tried making a soft pretzel — a proper Philadelphia-style laugenbrezel — at my rental kitchen here, and much like Curacao's defensive line, it held together just long enough before things went sideways. Germany win this professionally, 2-0, no drama required.