Kai Havertz saw the empty gate in front of him. It was the 66th minute against Hungary, it was 0-1 in the Munich arena, and Havertz found himself in a situation that a striker could only wish for. After a free kick from Kimmich, goalkeeper Gulacsi jumped past the ball, Hummels headed, and Havertz only had to hold out his head.
Just? At that moment Havertz saw something other than the empty gate: the failure, the ridicule. “From the outside,” he said on Sunday in Herzogenaurach, “it feels like the easiest goals. But when you’re in the situation, you think, fuck, you can only do everything wrong. It was harder than I thought. If I hadn’t done it, I would have been the idiot again. “
.
