In the upper tier of the south stand, the “Summer Fairy Tale 2024” was proclaimed on Tuesday evening. The fans of the national team printed this on a banner and rolled it out in the Cologne stadium. Before the German footballers down there realized that this appeal could also include the desire to win the European Championship title next year, they were already 2-0 behind in the friendly against Belgium after nine minutes. At first they played petrified.
After half an hour, the frightened national coach Hansi Flick made two changes. In particular, the inclusion of Emre Can for the slightly injured Leon Goretzka worked wonders. Flick had to stabilize a team that apparently thought after their 2-0 win against Peru three days earlier that they could also play against Belgium, fourth in the world rankings, in gentle gear.
In the 44th minute, Niclas Füllkrug converted a hand penalty to bring the team to the 1:2 break and back into play. She did well in the second half and dominated the Belgians, but conceded another goal from Kevin De Bruyne in the 78th minute. Serge Gnabry was only able to shorten the gap to make it 2:3 three minutes before the end.
The findings from both international matches are manageable. Neither the 2-0 win over Peru nor the 2-3 win over Belgium, both with an improvised squad and a total of six debutants, were enough to spark euphoria 14 months before the home European Championship. After all, both games were sold out, the atmosphere was good, and that was helpful for a little courage and new self-confidence. In addition, there was a positive assessment by the new Belgian national coach Domenico Tedesco, who said before the game: “I’m convinced that the German team will have a say in the title at their home European Championship.” After all, he didn’t revise that after the game.
After all: Tedesco believes in the DFB-Elf
Football Germany is happy to accept such a forecast from a qualified mouth, but the game against the Belgians and their German coach (formerly Schalke 04 and RB Leipzig) gave little indication that Germany can come close to the cup next year at home.
Against the Belgians, who also failed in the group phase of the World Cup, the home team reached their limits, especially in the first half hour. The 0:1 by Yannick Carrasco (6th) and the 0:2 by Romelu Lukaku (9th) were almost achieved by Dodi Lukebakio alone in front of goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen (19th) and Lukaku with a header on the crossbar (21st). followed up with the third and fourth goal before Flick made the switch and saw a significant improvement, as well as the comforting goal by Füllkrug shortly before the break.
“Their shortcoming at the World Cup was mainly the exploitation of chances,” Tedesco had said about the Germans before the game, and as if Flick hadn’t already known that himself, he also offered a double lead on Tuesday, as against Peru. Again, Füllkrug and Timo Werner were held responsible for improving the exploitation of chances. But this time it didn’t look very convincing either. The team came close to equalizing in the second half, but Werner’s goal in the 59th minute was ruled out for offside. Then De Bruyne hit, before Gnabry’s hit triggered a final offensive.
Four days before the top game in the Bundesliga between Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund, the international match did not stir up any explosiveness in this regard. Relevant players from both clubs were not nominated for the national team this time. Bayern Munich’s Thomas Müller and Leroy Sané stayed at home, as did Dortmund’s Niklas Süle and Marco Reus, and BVB’s Julian Brandt and Karim Adeyemi were injured.
Short hope at the end: Serge Gnabry scored 2:3, then the Germans ran up, but in the end the defeat was certain.
(Photo: Christian Charisius/dpa)
The national coach Flick tried to make the playing times of the three Bayern and Dortmund players halfway equal so that he could not be accused of influencing the league cracker. In the two international matches, Joshua Kimmich (Bayern) and Marius Wolf (Dortmund) had the most minutes with 180 and 170, respectively, as well as the playing times of Munich’s Serge Gnabry (135 minutes) and Leon Goretzka (77 minutes) as well as Dortmund’s Emre Can (103 minutes) and Nico Schlotterbeck (86 minutes, left after the Peru game with muscular problems) balanced each other out.
Freiburg central defender Matthias Ginter celebrated an anniversary against Belgium with his 50th international match. The national team career of the 29-year-old is a bit strained, because although he was part of the German squad for three World Cups (2014, 2018, 2022), he was only allowed to play one minute (!) of these 13 World Cup games. He came on as a substitute in the 93rd minute in Qatar’s 4-2 win over Costa Rica.
The European Championships at home are therefore of enormous importance not only for him. His career in the national team needs substance. He and the national team have 14 months to get in shape.
