The European expert audience quickly reached an almost unanimous conclusion about the German national football team’s first European Championship match, the 5:1 victory against Scotland: thrilling. It was not the latest and most recent statistics of the sport (expected goals!) that supported this assessment, but rather the good old “eye test”, the visible impressions.
For example, the way Toni Kroos – in his case, the data spoke for him: 103 passes played, 102 passes received – coordinated the play with the ball; how İlkay Gündoğan, who had his best international game in a long time, passed it on. How Jamal Musiala and Florian Wirtz then dribbled through the penalty area. And how Kai Havertz and Niclas Füllkrug then shot the ball into the goal. Five goals, five reasons for Germany.
But there was also a reason why one should not get carried away on the thrilling first evening of the European Championships, at least from a sports analysis point of view: it was only a sample.
This Wednesday evening, the stadium in Stuttgart was the next opportunity to test how good the German team is. Or, as some would say, how weak the Scottish team was. In this respect, it was clear after the first few minutes that the test conditions would be different this time. The Hungarians played much better than the Scots. To be more precise: they countered better. But the goals were scored by the Germans: Musiala and Gündoğan. Match result: 2:0. And the result of the test?
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As confident as the Germans played for the most part, there was another reason why one had to be very careful in assessing the findings: luck with the referee. In the 22nd minute, Gündoğan pressed his shoulder against the Hungarian Willi Orban in the penalty area, causing him to fall. As a result, it was not Orban but Gündoğan who grabbed the ball, passed it to Musiala and he shot it into the goal. The video referee looked at the scene. Even though he waved the decision through, it was more of a foul.
The pictures from the Hungary gameNew, new, always new
But it would also be wrong to attribute the sovereignty that permeated the German game to this decision and this 1-0 goal alone. Kroos (highlight: his initial pass to Musiala before the 2-0) and Gündoğan (at least in the second half) controlled the ball too well. Musiala (not Wirtz) dribbled too successfully.
Although the strikers didn’t score any goals this time, the goalkeeper and central defenders prevented some: Manuel Neuer in the 26th minute (good save against Szoboszlai’s free kick) and Jonathan Tah in the 29th minute (good tackle against Szoboszlai’s shot). The players corrected each other’s mistakes – and in doing so demonstrated something that can hardly be measured with data: that there is a team playing.
And what else? The atmosphere in the stadium was very good again. The atmosphere in the team, it seems, is also good. On Sunday (9 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the European Football Championship, on ARD and on MagentaTV) the third and probably strongest group opponent, Switzerland, awaits. That will be the most interesting sample. But the first impression was also confirmed on Wednesday: that the first results of this team are no coincidence.
