[ad_1]
A historic disgrace like the end of a year of lost internationals: the desperately overwhelmed German team experienced the worst debacle in 89 years (against Austria) and lacked maturity in the ME.
In the “final” for the group win in Spain’s Nations League, national coach Joachim Löw’s astonishing selection had no chance from the start and left after a memorable 6-0 (3-0) beating. . The biggest defeat since 1931 (0: 6 against Austria) followed a shocked and petrified Löw on the sidelines.
Goalkeeper Manuel Neuer lived an afternoon to forget in his record match (96th international match), when Álvaro Morata (17th), Ferran Torres (33rd, 55th, 72nd), Rodrigo (38th) and Mikel Oyarzabal scored. (89.) The Bayern goalkeeper was powerless. Neuer’s forwards almost only ran behind the happy Spaniards and revealed terrible defensive gaps and serious coordination problems. The disaster gives Löw and his team many duties for the upcoming European Championship year.
Germany was miles away from their first competitive victory against La Roja in 32 years at the La Cartuja Olympic Stadium. The recently unconvincing Spaniards qualified for the Final Four in October 2021. There, world champion France is already determined as a rival.
With the kick-off, Neuer became the only record holder in DFB history. With his 96th international game, the captain surpassed Sepp Maier (95), who is himself a “goalkeeper legend”. However, Neuer is still miles from the international record Sergio Ramos, who played for Spain for the 178th time against Germany.
Superior to Spain from the start
Ramos put Neuer to the test in the 7th minute with a free kick, which the Bayern goalkeeper dodged. The DFB team were lucky that referee Andreas Ekberg (Sweden) had misplaced Ilkay Gündogan’s minor foul on Leipzig pro Dani Olmo outside the penalty area.
Unlike the first leg (1: 1), when Löw had experimented with risky man-to-man tactics, the German team began to wait. In return, the Spaniards attacked early and fast, as their weak point they had obviously chosen the left defense with the inexperienced Philipp Max and Robin Koch. After the consequent 0: 1, Löw’s team advanced a little further, which, however, gave space to the Spanish buttresses. The failure of Ferran Torres (18th), the offside of Morata (23rd) and a world-class parade of Neuer against Torres (30th) initially prevented a 0-2. But that was only postponed.
The rebound after a crossbar by Olmo was taken advantage of by Torres, who was criminally abandoned by Max, for the second shot, and three minutes later Rodrigo headed in. The Spanish, with Ramos and Sergio Canales injured in the first half, dominated the game almost at will. But they received almost no resistance. “That was nothing,” said ARD expert Bastian Schweinsteiger at halftime.
After changing sides, despite a system change, nothing changed. In Toni Kroos, who was also disappointed, and who missed a yellow card against Ukraine (3-1), the teammates could not stand up. Offensive, the turbo trio Timo Werner, Leroy Sane and Serge Gnabry remained in the air.
Before the game, the DFB announced that all members of the current team had tested negative for COVID-19 again. Given the recent international match between the DFB-Elf against Ukraine, it was reassuring news, as numerous Ukrainian players have performed positively since then.
dpa
