The German national team’s 6-0 win against Slovakia was a demonstration of power, a football festival – but not yet a reason for excessive euphoria.
Ex-national player and TV expert Lothar Matthäus (64) writes in his Sky-Columns: “With all due respect to these opponents, Germany wants to compete with the best, and those are the other group winners like England, Portugal or France.”
However, the record national player sees the DFB team on the right track after qualifying for the World Cup: “If we do what we showed in Leipzig, we will be on a par with these teams.”
“Leave such sayings aside”: Germany’s tournament strength suddenly gone?
In the 6-0 win against the Slovaks, the team was convincing as a team, Leroy Sané (29/Galatasaray) and Florian Wirtz (22/Liverpool), who were recently criticized, showed strong performances, as did Joshua Kimmich (30/Bayern), Nico Schlotterbeck (25/Dortmund) and Serge Gnabry (30/Gnabry). The goals from Leipzig substitutes Ridle Baku (27) and Assan Ouédraogo (19) also showed that national coach Julian Nagelsmann (38) has a lot of choice when allocating squad places for the World Cup.
Matthäus makes it clear: “The squad is very well positioned overall with a view to the World Cup; top performers such as Jamal Musiala, Kai Havertz, Antonio Rüdiger and Marc-André ter Stegen are working on their return. But that doesn’t mean that they will play right away.”
The TV expert continues: “There is hardly anyone in the current national team who cannot be replaced, nobody has a free pass. This will keep the concentration high until the World Cup and everyone will give their all to convince the coach.
The qualifying round had its winners in Nick Woltemade (4 goals) and Serge Gnabry (3). Including the last debutant, Assan Quedraogo, who shone with a lightning goal, the national coach used 30 different players in six games. Goalkeeper Oliver Baumann was the only one who was on the pitch from the first to the last minute.
Matthäus expects an exciting personnel puzzle with a view to the World Cup: “Will Musiala or Gnabry play? Will Havertz or Woltemade play? The nice thing for Julian Nagelsmann is that he has a lot to choose from next year. For a coach, the most wonderful thing is when he can bring quality after quality into the team.”
