City, on the other hand, was incisive in their possession, producing dangerous chances for Sergio Agüero and Jesus Navas that required the exceptional goaltending of David De Gea.
Germany were more assured in possession, more incisive in and around the penalty area and boasted strength in depth Hodgson can only admire, even if he would not confess to envy.
Quick ball and incisive drives set up possession deep in the Scottish 22, and a flat pass from Ben Youngs allowed Twelvetrees to take the ball at pace and thump through Dougie Hall and Jim Hamilton for his first international try.
Scotland's first possession was bold, incisive and resulted in a 60-metre gain.
Fellaini began an incisive move on goal, maintaining possession in midfield and feeding Ander Herrera.
It was a quintessential mid-Wenger era counterattack: blisteringly incisive, 15 seconds after Newcastle lose possession 10 yards from the Arsenal box, the ball is in the net.
The way that Villas-Boas sets his team up, probing in possession yet quick and incisive on the counter, seems tailor-made for away games, when opponents carry the fight rather than camping with men behind the ball.
Luis Enrique described Barcelona's performance as "spectacular, both in defence and attack" though, for all their familiar slick possession, it was Suárez's incisive interventions after the interval that took the breath away.
The eleventh hour fugue was incisive and fast enough to more than suggest demonic possession and the final disintegration was numbing.
Hagi Gligor (100% passes completed), Terry McFlynn (100%), Milos Dimitrijevic (94%) and later Nick Carle (88%) had time and space to keep possession comfortably and also to pick out incisive passes further forward.
