Thomas Müller comes, meets and wins: Germany on course for the World Cup after 2-1 against Romania – sport

At the very beginning, at least the stadium announcer created a bit of amusement. Joshua Kimmich was ready to take a penalty kick. He had been there for a long time. And because the referee kept tapping his ear with his index finger, there was probably no one left in the sold out arena in Hamburg with 25,000 spectators who was still wondering why it was all taking so long. After a long time, the stadium announcer preferred to announce again that the penalty would be checked. There was laughter.

After that there wasn’t much to laugh about for the German national soccer team. The penalty was actually withdrawn, and in return, the blatant underdog Romania even took the lead 1-0 in the World Cup qualifier. She only managed to equalize at the beginning of the second half, but in the end a deserved 2: 1 (0: 1) success jumped out through a late goal by substitute Thomas Müller. He gives the Germans the chance to qualify for the World Cup in Qatar on Monday in North Macedonia on their own.

Against the Romanians, national coach Hansi Flick had to do without the ailing goalkeeper and captain Manuel Neuer, and – compared to the game in Iceland in September – Ilkay Gündogan. For them, Marc-André ter Stegen played in goal and, somewhat surprisingly, not Thomas Müller, who was injured last month, but Marco Reus.

Flick is obviously not a fan of excessive switching. Why? By Friday evening everything had gone to his complete satisfaction. Three games in qualifying for the World Cup in Qatar at the end of next year, three wins, no goal conceded. But that was over early on Friday.

Germany can qualify for the World Cup on Monday on its own

In the ninth minute, the Romanians duped the Germans, who had moved far ahead. Antonio Rüdiger instinctively backed away when Ianis Hagi rushed towards him. Last but not least, the central defender of FC Chelsea was even tunnelled by Hagi before Romania’s national player with the well-known name ter Stegen overcame the German goal with a shot with the pick. That was the end of the time without a goal under the new national coach Flick.

It took the Germans a little to regroup and recover from the unplanned event. They almost even conceded the second goal less than a minute after the 0: 1. But more and more Flick’s team found their way back into the game. She worked on the Romanians with great zeal, she moved up very high, attacked early and immediately won back many lost balls.

Only the yield was missing. Sometimes there was a lack of accuracy on the last pass, sometimes a bit of luck – as with Serge Gnabry’s failed cross to the free-standing Timo Werner. Gnabry slipped the ball over his instep, so that the flank became a shot on goal, which Florin Nita just caught.

At the break, the Germans had 80 percent possession and had some good opportunities. Gnabry in particular was very active, whereas Leroy Sané looked a bit unhappy in many situations. And yet he didn’t give up, kept going back and trying to iron out his mistakes. In this respect, the national team was not to be blamed for, despite the deficit at the break. This is one of the reasons why Flick initially refrained from generating new impulses from the bank.

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Timo Werner missed the equalizer right at the beginning of the second half after a sharp cross from Marco Reus just by the tip of a foot. Shortly afterwards, however, the spell was broken – because Gnabry’s shot from the edge of the penalty area into the far corner had everything that the German game was a bit lacking: force, determination and, above all, precision.

The national team didn’t let up, but even pushed their efforts to decide the game for themselves. Reus missed the lead shortly after the 1-1 draw when he put the ball over the bar from seven meters; Sané tried it from a distance after a good individual performance, but clearly missed the target; Timo Werner tripped the ball past the goal with his thigh after a sharp cross from Thilo Kehrer.

Almost 25 minutes before the end, Flick brought in Müller and Kai Havertz for Reus and Werner, two fresh offensive forces to increase the pressure on the Romanians again. There was no shortage of opportunities to take the lead, but it took until the 81st minute before Thomas Müller picked up a corner kick at the second post to make it 2-1 for the Germans after Leon Goretzka headed a corner.