2018 FIFA World Cup | Has Germany defender Antonio Rudiger invented new form of defending?

Forget the no-look pass or the no-look shot, Germany and Chelsea defender Antonio Rudiger claims to have invented the no-look tackle ahead of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.

A skill, whose popularity has generally been attributed to Brazilians over the years, has now seen the Die Mannschaft centre-back give his own twist to:

No-look pass? Try no-look defending! 👊🏾👻😂 #Hustle #AlwaysBelieve #DieMannschaft #BestNeverRest @dfb_team @esmuellert

A post shared by Antonio Rüdiger (@toniruediger) on Jun 13, 2018 at 5:54am PDT

The World Cup is the biggest sporting spectacle of them all and the pressure on participating nations is immense to deliver but it’s great to see players retain their sense of humour.

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Somehow, the training bib covered Rudiger’s face as he lunged in to tackle compatriot Thomas Muller.

Germany, the defending champions, are the bookmakers’ favourites to go all the way and they open their campaign on June 17 when they take on Mexico.

Sweden and South Korea are the other two teams in their group. It won’t be easy, but Joachim Loew’s men are expected to progress to the knockout stages without a hitch.