There is a poster hanging in front of Stuttgart’s main train station, or rather in front of the place where the old main train station was and where the new one is supposed to be in the still astonishingly distant future. “Hello football fans, sorry for the chaos in this city,” it says in English. “It’s because of Germany’s stupidest train station construction project.”
In this way, fans from abroad are also informed about the unfinished nuisance, which bears the title “Stuttgart 21”, which is supposedly revealing for a European Football Championship in 2024. Even if the name is not intended to refer to a planned completion in 2021, but merely to the 21st century.
The poster provides an explanation for the large hole in the ground that is still clearly visible behind all the construction fences. What may have surprised the football fans who travelled to the European Championship match between Belgium and Ukraine on Wednesday was the other deep divide that they saw, or perhaps felt, that evening in Stuttgart. It ran between the Belgian national team and their own fans. It opened up after the 0:0 draw on the last day of the preliminary round of Group E.
Belgians turn away
After the final whistle, the Stuttgart stadium initially presented a picture that is often seen in football stadiums after the final whistle. One team stood in a row in front of their fan section and was cheered and applauded by their supporters. The other team stood there dejected and was greeted with a shrill chorus of whistles by a good 10,000 fans.
The strange thing this time, however, was that the team that was being celebrated by its fans had just been eliminated from the tournament – the Ukrainian team. And the team that was booed had qualified for the round of 16 with the draw – the Belgians.
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Many of the Belgian players reacted with disbelief. Kevin De Bruyne, the captain, initially wanted to lead his teammates into the corner to receive applause as a reward for their hard-fought progress. But then he heard and felt the anger that was directed at them. With his arms flailing, he gave the signal to retreat to the dressing room.
It is a remarkable rift that has developed between the “Red Devils” and their supporters. Especially since there will be little chance of mending it before the round of 16 match against France next Monday (6 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the European Football Championship, on ARD or ZDF and on Magenta TV).
“Many players don’t understand it”
The players and their German coach Domenico Tedesco were obviously biting their tongues afterwards so as not to add fuel to the fire. But it was obvious that two completely opposing interpretations of what had happened on the pitch had collided.
“We are a little surprised,” said Tedesco, for example. “It was very important for us to advance. Things are not that easy, Ukraine was very good. We have to accept it when the fans whistle. But many players don’t understand it.”
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De Bruyne, who was even named player of the match, at least tried to push for a reasonable reconciliation for the knockout phase: “We need the fans. We need them against France. That’s all I can say.”
However, he left no doubt that he too had little understanding for the reactions. “I can’t say that we didn’t fight, that everyone didn’t give their all,” he said, also pointing out that the team played well in the first (0-1 against Slovakia) and the second (2-0 against Romania) game. “Perhaps that’s why the expectations are higher.”
Yannick Carrasco put it even more clearly: “We are proud that we have progressed. As a group, we do not understand the reaction. We do not think that the boos are normal. We must not forget where Belgium comes from – and now we are involved in every major tournament.”
Team thinks more pragmatically
This is probably where the core of the conflict between the Belgians and their fans lies. After almost a decade as chronic “secret favorites” at every major tournament, the expectations in the once small football nation have risen enormously.
The talent and class in the Belgian squad still make fans dream of great success, even though the first players of their supposed “golden generation” have already retired.
And it’s not that the team doesn’t share these dreams. But to make them come true, they are clearly prepared to be much more pragmatic. This was evident in the final phase, when the Belgians tried to play down the time on two corners right in front of their own supporters instead of crossing in front of the goal.
Up until that point, the game had gone as expected in a match in which the favorites were so clearly divided. Ukraine were positioned deep, and the spaces in the five-man defense were tight. Belgium had a lot of possession, but few chances to score. The opponents, on the other hand, were often more dangerous on the counterattack. In the final minutes, the Belgians therefore resorted to playing for time.
“We had to be smart”
Tedesco later explained this with “game management”, the plan for different scenarios, which provided for exactly this behavior in this case. De Bruyne put it this way: “Sometimes you have to be brave, sometimes you have to be clever. Today we had to be clever.”
For the fans, however, the ball being held at the corner flag was clearly the last straw. The fact that they have now qualified for the knockout phase as second in a group with three supposedly easy opponents and on the same number of points as everyone else is not enough for them after many strong performances before the European Championship.
And so, in addition to the honorable performance of Ukraine, another positive side aspect of the game was lost in the whistles of the Belgian stands: for at least one evening, the underground station did not look like the biggest construction site in Stuttgart.
