BBefore the first players set off on their way home on Wednesday night, Hansi Flick felt the need to say a few words to the team. The national coach gave a short speech in the dressing room after the selection of the German Football Association (DFB) had conceded a 2: 3 (1: 2) in the test against Belgium – and a lesson in the first half hour of the game was granted, which raised fears of the worst and once again revealed that there is still a lot of work to be done on the way to the EM 2024.
Only nine minutes were played on Tuesday, when the opponent had already led 2-0 after goals from Yannick Carrasco (6th) and Romelu Lukaku (9th), if Dodi Lukebakio had not shot just wide of the goal in the 19th and Lukaku shortly afterwards not beheaded on the crossbar (21st), who knows how this game would have ended – and what the critics would have said then.
Lothar Matthäus was also very harsh on the team. What Germany would have shown in the first 30 minutes, “that was the worst thing I’ve actually seen in my long, long career,” summed up the record national player on RTL. “They didn’t fight back in the duels, they let the Belgians play. They deservedly fell 2-0 down – and fortunately only 2-0 down. And then they woke up.”
Serge Gnabry only scored against Belgium to connect
Source: dpa/Rolf Vennenbernd
Only the inclusion of Emre Can after about half an hour and some young players in the second round led to an improvement. “We want to see the way the team played from the 30th minute,” said Matthäus. But it wasn’t enough for a draw. For Matthäus, the reason for this was clearly the failed initial phase: “It was a complete failure in the first 30 minutes.”
Disastrous half hour against Belgium
Half an hour in which no allocation was correct, duels were not accepted and the Belgians literally overran the German team. Now Lukaku, the massive striker, is clearly superior to the German defender Thilo Kehrer in terms of stature alone, but the way he sent him onto the pitch with a loose body check in the 26th minute was symbolic of the game in which the German team only gained access when she acted with more physicality and fighting spirit.
At the beginning, Joshua Kimmich summed it up openly and honestly, one was too prone to make mistakes and was not at all hungry. “The mistakes have to stop. That was nothing, especially not at the beginning,” said the Munich player after the game, which was watched by an average of 6.96 million people on RTL. According to the broadcaster, this corresponds to a market share of 27.1 percent.
In the end, when the opponent then made six changes and no longer had the best staff on the pitch, goals from Nicals Füllkrug (44′) and Serge Gnabry (87′) – Kevin de Bruyne scored for Belgium (78′) – Although almost enough to equalize. Despite the increase, that would have been flattering.
We were too reserved, too passive. We couldn’t put the opponent under pressure. Belgium outplayed us mercilessly. Then we switched. Then there was a little more stability. We did better after 30 minutes,” summarized national coach Flick – and praised Emre Can: “You have to say that Emre showed what defensive quality he has after he was substituted on. He was, if you will, the aggressive leader we needed. He won a lot of duels and shook the team up.”
Can could not avert the defeat either. But if you cut out the first half hour, Germany even won 2-1 with him. “Then we played a good game, that’s the truth,” said Can about the season with Can, whom Flick brought back to the DFB team after almost two years after the World Cup disaster in Qatar and in view of good performances at BVB. And Can, it looks like, is obviously willing to become an integral part of the squad for the EM.
Flick has to deliver
He had already impressed in the friendly against Peru (2-0), and he went one better against Belgium. After a spectacular tackle against Belgium’s Timothy Castagne shortly before the break, Steffen Freund, who was also responsible for the rough stuff on the pitch and is now co-commentator on RTL, praised Can’s commitment: “Pure mentality, plus of course individual class, presence and mentality .”
Substituting Can (left) stabilized the German defense
Quelle: Getty Images
Can and also Füllkrug, who scored his sixth goal in his sixth international match in Cologne on Tuesday, are the winners of the first two international matches in 2023. None of the six newcomers knew how to leave a lasting impression. Possibly in training, the sometimes short deployment times gave little information about the true performance. Hansi Flick, the coach, will be watching many players and games for the rest of the season before three more internationals are due in June. Except for Ukraine, who will be the opponent in the 1000th DFB game, two other opponents are still open. One should be Poland.
The national coach, who deliberately did without some established forces, knows that he and his team have to deliver. There is still a little time until the European Championships, but at the same time it is time to reduce the experiments and start to get used to ensuring more stability within the team. For a better understanding of the game, for better standards, for more aggressiveness and commitment.
