Germany turns out great against Italy-and yet only plays a tie: for T-online columnist Stefan Effenberg, no contradiction. The ex-international explains what was surprising to him-and what action was fatal for the German game.
A fear arises: You could be blinded by the appearance of the German national team against Italy. Because Germany played a very, very good football against the four-time world champion- but only if you collect back and forth. At the 2-1 in Milan last Thursday it was the second half, now the first on Sunday at 3: 3 in Dortmund.
And therefore it is now very important that national coach Julian Nagelsmann and his team cannot be fooled by these really outstanding first 45 minutes in the signal Iduna Park. Because of course what we saw from the national team was exceptional-maybe it was even the best since the 7-1 over Brazil in the semi-finals of the 2014 World Cup. Then, as now, this feeling was somehow in the wrong film with this intoxication in which the DFB-Elf played there.
But you shouldn’t forget: what Italy showed in the first round was just extremely bad. Germany has put the opponent under constant pressure, with high pressing and strong defense in the forward movement. This disorder before 0: 2 from your point of view, that should not happen to such an internationally experienced players. It was very surprised that you got involved in discussions with a standard situation in a standard situation – and completely lost sight of the ball and game. That was deep asleep ten. This was extremely atypical for the otherwise defensively disciplined Italians. I am sure that this beginner mistake will not happen to you again.
What the Italians showed after the break was also impressive. To come back like this for the first half after this desolate – that speaks for the character of the team, for their quality and also for their trainer Spaletti. You managed to come back after a 0: 3 and really embarrass the Germans.
However, there was also a break in the German game: the three changes that Nagelsmann made in the 63rd minute turned the course of the game completely upside down. Leon Goretzka, Angelo Stiller and Leroy Sané went off the field, for that came Nadiem Amiri, Pascal Groß and Karim Adeyemi. I think you could see the three that they weren’t happy to be taken out of the game after just an hour. After the end of the game, Nagelsmann said that Goretzka had had thigh problems, Stiller, in turn, had been replaced because of the yellow-red-red risk. It may honor the national coach that he is so careful.
But with these changes – and the two additional changes in the 77th minute – he completely confused the team structure. Until then, this had worked excellently, especially the duo in the midfield center from Goretzka and Stiller. The two were primarily responsible for the stability and rhythm in the German game. I have never experienced that at once both six at once. It was therefore immediately clear to me that sovereignty and control would be gone. And that’s why they actually came into such great difficulties. That was the sticking point in the game.
