Hansi Flick was standing a few meters away from his team, he still had something to do after the final whistle. The national coach waited patiently on the Wolfsburg lawn while the stadium control system made a lot of noise around him until he had applauded the last pitiful Liechtenstein player. 0: 9 lost, there was at least a handshake and an encouraging pat on the shoulder from the DFB coach. A small gesture that was well received by the opponent when the German audience had already intoned in exuberance: “One is still going, one is still going in.”
Flick shows himself to be a fair winner against the Liechtensteiners
There were actually a few balls in the last home game of the German national team this year, nine goals in total, seven more than in the first leg, which was “only” won 2-0. This time Leroy Sané and Thomas Müller scored two goals each, Ilkay Gündogan, Marco Reus and Ridle Baku one each. In addition, there were two own goals by the Liechtensteiners, who also had to accept a dismissal against Jens Hofer very early, in the eighth minute, who had kicked Leon Goretzka in the face with a raised foot and an open sole.
Then there were sympathetic images of Goretzka still lying dazed on the lawn, but the culprit Hofer really tried hard for him, both players finally left the field arm in arm – and Goretzka at the end comforted Hofer because his working day after the serious foul had already ended.
In more than 80 minutes of outnumbering such an opponent, his team “should have made one or the other goal more,” warned Flick, but without any urgency in his voice. It was mainly due to Liechtenstein goalkeeper Benjamin Büchel that this game did not end 0:10, 0:12 or even worse for the team from the Principality. Büchel parried from all positions, bringing Wolfsburg’s Lukas Nmecha, in particular, to despair, who would have loved to score as a substitute in his own stadium. The audience was still intoxicated, in between the Laola went through the stadium, the fans didn’t want to stop clapping, cheering and singing.
Löw comes and is said goodbye – but the big celebration does not take place
The good mood fit into the picture, on the one hand it was ultimately the sixth victory under national coach Flick in the sixth game (qualification for the World Cup in Qatar had already been achieved in October). On the other hand, the evening in Wolfsburg was chosen to say goodbye to Flick’s predecessor Joachim Löw. He had delayed an official award so far in order to let his former assistant coach Flick arrive in his new position in peace, but now he was there. Well rested, in a chic coat, Löw stepped through the trellis of some of the 2014 world champions onto the lawn. Sami Khedira had come, Lukas Podolski, Per Mertesacker and Mats Hummels, who in turn wore a coat that you first have to trust yourself.
But the ceremony was over faster than expected. Löw received the obligatory certificate in a picture frame, said a few words RTL-Microphone about his coaching ambitions (“the desire is gradually coming back”), the stadium announcer called three times “Thank you, Jogi”, then the game started. No feature films, no emotional pictures from 17 years of Jogi at the DFB. All in all, it was a very sterile farewell for a man who had brought the world championship back to the country. Löw took a seat in the stands, next to the former DFB President Wolfgang Niersbach. The ceremony ended.
Down in the square, however, Löw saw his former subordinates, who hung themselves in as if they wanted to offer their long-time boss something to say goodbye. Among the nine goals were pretty nice productions, such as the first by Sané, a left-hand shot after a great combination over Reus and Goretzka. Or the hit from Wolfsburg’s Ridle Baku, from the corner of the penalty area into the corner that just clapped. What was striking was the greed with which the Germans continued to play even against an overwhelmed opponent. “We wanted the next and the next,” said Thomas Müller, explaining the assignment that the team pursued relentlessly.
Under Hansi Flick, the record now stands at six wins and 27 goals, a national coach has never got off to a better start. It is likely that his starting record in Armenia will be expanded on Sunday; the Armenians went down 5-0 against North Macedonia in their own stadium on Thursday. Whereby Müller immediately put into perspective that there had been “no extremely difficult opponents” in the past few months. Reus also said: “You can’t say how close we are to the top of the world, the opponents weren’t on the same level.”
Inevitably, the Dortmund man was asked about Löw that evening. Looking at the nine goals, Reus said: “Hopefully that was a nice farewell for him.” If the celebrations on the part of the DFB were a bit dreary.
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