World Cup 2014: Manuel Neuer happy to run the risk of another Patrick Battiston incident

The goalkeeper says he will continue to charge out

Harald Schumacher (right) charges out to collide with Patrick Battiston (left) in 1982 (Getty Images)

Manuel Neuer has insisted he will not change his style of play even though the Germany goalkeeper admits it risks repeating the worst foul in World Cup history.

The 1982 semi-final between France and West Germany in Spain was 57 minutes old and locked a 1-1 when Michel Platini’s pass sent Patrick Battiston clear on goal. West Germany goalkeeper Harald Schumacher’s reaction was to launch what can only be described as a pre-meditated assault on the St-Etienne defender, flying into him studs up, elbows up, forearm raised.

The impact left Battiston in a coma with two broken teeth and damaged vertebrae. The ball slid past Schumacher’s post. Because Seville police had banned the Red Cross from the touchline at the Ramon Pizjuan Stadium, it took three minutes for help to reach the pitch. Platini thought Battiston was dead.

At no time did Schumacher go over to apologise, claiming, probably with reason, that he feared for his safety if he came too close to the France players. Later, his only act of contrition was to say: “There is no sympathy among professionals but I will pay for the crowns on Battiston’s teeth.”

This is a very different Germany team but they have a similarly agile goalkeeper and Neuer is aware his tactic of dashing out to act as an emergency sweeper, so effective in Brazil to date, puts him at risk of a similar incident.

“You certainly can’t rule it out,” he said, preparing for today’s quarter-final against France. “That was a brutal scene and I hope something like that never happens to me. When I come out of my area, I rely on timing so I don’t do any harm to my opponent.

“Coming out of my area is the way I play and I am not going to change but I know that, whenever I do it, I run the risk of a red card.”

Astonishingly, a red card was the one thing Schumacher did not receive. The only decision made by the Dutch referee, Charles Corver, was to award West Germany a goal-kick.

The match staggered on into extra-time, where France scored twice more to lead 3-1 with 22 minutes remaining. That is when Les Bleus midfielder Alain Giresse says he always stops the tape of the match. The Germans fought back to 3-3, although Platini was insistent the first, from Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, should never have stood.

For the first time a World Cup match was decided by a penalty shoot-out and not for the first time the Germans won it. “We have been eliminated brutally, you might almost say scientifically,” said the France coach, Michel Hidalgo.

By arranging a result with Austria specifically designed to eliminate Algeria, the Germans had cheated their way into the knockout stages and had now brutalised their way into the final. Italy’s victory in Madrid, inspired by Paolo Rossi who had just returned from a betting ban, seemed the purest form of distilled justice.

1986 and all that

Their last-four meeting in Spain 32 years ago proved more memorable but France and (West) Germany have met since at the same stage. Henri Michel’s side were reunited with the West Germans, led by Franz Beckenbauer, in the semi-finals in Mexico in 1986 - and again it was the French who went home early. Goals at either end of the match from Andreas Brehme and Rudi Voeller earned a 2-0 win in Guadalajara - before the Germans again went on to lose the final.

James Mariner