When Julian Nagelsmann was asked about the topic of the week before the German national soccer team’s international match, he described the emotionally discussed change of supplier by the German Football Association (DFB) from Adidas to Nike from 2027 as “not my construction site. Mine is the daily business on the pitch”. And there, as was surprisingly clear on Saturday evening in Lyon, he has fewer problems than feared after the dismal defeats in November. The Germans won 2-0 and gave hope that the football summer of 2024 could be a good one after all.
Tobias Rabe
Editor in charge of Sport Online.
Florian Wirtz scored the fastest goal in German international history after seven seconds, Kai Havertz scored the second goal right at the start of the second half. Exactly 83 days before the opening game of the continental championship in their own country, it was not the French but the Germans who appeared like the next champions. “We can be very satisfied,” said Toni Kroos on ZDF: “I think that we have taken a good step forward, an important step forward. Because these are slowly the last chances to get a bit of feeling towards the European Championships.”
Rarely had there been as few personnel question marks surrounding a German line-up before a game as there were on Saturday. Nagelsmann had already revealed his desired team visually during training on Thursday through the division and verbally on Friday. Marc-André ter Stegen was there in goal, who represented Manuel Neuer, who was injured again, and will also do so on Tuesday (8.45 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for international matches and on RTL) against the Netherlands in Frankfurt, debutant Maximilian Mittelstädt at left back, Robert Andrich as Toni Kroos’ partner and Kai Havertz as leader.
A record goal from Wirtz
The referee had just blown the whistle after a minute’s silence for the late Franz Beckenbauer and Andreas Brehme when it became very quiet again in the Groupama Stadium. After eight seconds the ball hit the French goal. Havertz pushed the kick-off to Kroos, who turned on his own axis and found the free Wirtz. He ran a few meters and surprised goalkeeper Brice Samba with his shot from 22 meters. No German national player had ever scored so quickly; Lukas Podolski needed nine seconds against Ecuador in 2013.
Even afterwards, the game could be easily followed by the sound carpet among the almost 60,000 spectators in Lyon. When Wirtz ran through on the left wing and found Musiala, whose finish was too weak, it was completely quiet (5th minute). Nagelsmann claps anyway. The national coach liked what he saw. It only got loud when Kylian Mbappé set off, but initially the star from Paris had little luck. Rather, the Germans dominated the first twenty minutes with their relay of ball-savvy Kroos, İlkay Gündoğan, Musiala and Wirtz. The audience didn’t like this; it whistled.
Only then did the disappointment over the guest’s dominance subside. Marcus Thuram fired the French first shot on goal (20th minute). Then it got loud again, but it was more of a groan that the ball shot well over the target than a shout of joy at the first approach. But more were to follow almost every minute. Mbappé’s right-footed shot, after Joshua Kimmich misjudged, flew just wide of the goal (22′), a header from Adrien Rabiot flew over Ter Stegen’s goal (23′), and Mbappé again failed with a lob from the German goalkeeper (25′).
