PARIS — Where’s Germany’s Plan B?

The question came up during the second half of the European soccer cup semifinal match last week between Italy and Germany at a moment when the Germans were losing 2-0 and looking thwarted — but not changing tactics.

Bixente Lizarazu, a former French international player and star at Bayern Munich, and now a television analyst here, joined his broadcast colleagues in explaining as Italy headed to victory: “There is no German Plan B.”

These days, that answer also fits the German economy and the country’s banks and finances.

Without a scoreboard’s precision or a referee’s play-stopping whistle, the evidence says that Germany is moving in the direction of a recession, faces palpable international concern about its public debt and the solidity of its banks, and, no longer infallible or triumphant (but rather like a senior partner in shared misery), must develop a more flexible approach in leading Europe.

You’d think Germany could well consider changing its game under these circumstances.

In recent months, an important indicator of financial experts’ expectations for the German economy shot downward, a huge decline described as the deepest since 1998. Siemens, Salzgitter AG, the steel maker, and Infineon Technologies, a manufacturer of computer chips, all issued profit warnings.