Again it took until the 84th minute for Germany to score the decisive goal against Hungary. Like the last time they met in a competitive game – like the World Cup final in 1954, when Helmut Rahn scored the legendary 3-2 for Germany in Bern. This time it was Leon Goretzka who didn’t quite hit the background. With Rahn it was the TV commentary that later became famous, with Goretzka it could be the goal celebration.
It’s not a World Cup final, but it’s a knockout game. If Germany does not score any more goals, the team is eliminated from the bottom of the group in the preliminary round of the European Championship. Up to the 84th minute it looks like Joachim Löw’s 15-year national coaching career will end with a defeat against Hungary.
Two minutes earlier, Löw took his last chance to change. He brings Jamal Musiala and makes the 18-year-old the youngest player who has ever played for Germany in a tournament. Musiala played a big part in the fact that Germany will meet England on Wednesday at Wembley, the country for which he was still playing in the U21s in November 2020.
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Musiala hits the ball deep in the Hungarian half and goes straight to one-on-one. A skill that the German team lacked throughout the game. Musiala only needs four ball contacts to change that. With the first contact, he picks up speed and penetrates the penalty area, hits a hook, switches to the right foot on the next ball contact and stops abruptly.
His opponent Nego runs nowhere. That buys him time and Musiala lays the ball down one last time. His pass to Leon Goretzka, who is waiting at the sixteenth, is perfectly timed. Not too sharp and not too weak.
Goretzka’s first idea is to put the ball on Timo Werner, and he is lucky that the ball lands right in front of his feet after a short back and forth. What was the cleanest technology at Musiala is pure determination at Goretzka. The ball bounces up again, and the Munich player can volley it out of the air just above the ground with full risk. Hungary’s goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi has no chance, also because the ball was deflected.
His jubilation is even greater than Goretzka’s goal. First he turns in the direction of the corner flag, where the masterpiece Musiala is. Then he decides differently. The hit fell directly from the Hungarian block, which showed homophobic banners during the game and chanted “Germany, Germany, homosexual” even before kick-off.
Goretzka walks up to this fan block and forms a heart with both hands. Shortly afterwards, substitute Kevin Volland pulls him to the ground while cheering.
