Germany is being taken out on Spanish time – Libération

Euro Football 2024fileSpain eliminated Germany from its Euro 2024, this Friday, July 5 in Stuttgart, at the end of a breathtaking match (2-1 after extra time). It will face the winner of France-Portugal in the semi-final.

Euro 2024 will continue without the host country, but with an ultra-attractive Spanish team that looks more and more like a European champion every day. Impressive in its mastery and technical quality for over an hour, La Roja qualified for the semi-finals on Friday, July 5, by eliminating Germany, defeated in Stuttgart, two goals to one after extra time, at the end of a breathtaking encounter. We would have liked to keep both of them, however, Germany and Spain, the two best nations since the start of a competition marked by the sluggish and boring performances of the other favorites (we think of France and England, not to mention Italy, which was eliminated prematurely), the only two to have won the Euro three times in history, but the draw had decided otherwise. “It could have been the final,” said the Iberian coach, Luis de la Fuente, during the press conference the day before.

Panache

It may have been a final (not really, in fact, since there are still two games to play before a possible title), but both teams had decided to approach it with panache, without the timidity that sometimes accompanies clashes at such high altitude, by playing as they are accustomed to doing – fast and forward. By putting their foot in the duels, too, even if it meant being mean, especially on the Mannschaft side. This was evidenced by the two bad blows dealt out right away by the legendary German midfielder Toni Kroos, the first of which cost the young Barcelona prodigy Pedri his place, who came off in the eighth minute of play, collapsed. Miraculously, the Real Madrid player, who played the last match of his immense career this Friday, came out of this sequence without a single yellow card, whereas he would undoubtedly have deserved to be sent off for his entire body of work. As for Pedri, who suffered a sprained knee, his competition is over and he will probably not play football for several weeks.

The tone is set. Pedri or not, however, it is the Roja who are gradually taking control of the game. More dangerous, more enterprising, more precise, faster, with their two young wingers – Nico Williams and Lamine Yamal – who are giving the whole continent a headache. German coach Julian Nagelsmann is not mistaken, choosing to replace two players at half-time to turn the match around. In vain. Just five minutes after the break, Spain opened the scoring, with a low cross from Lamine Yamal taken with his right foot by Dani Olmo. A just turn of fate: a substitute at kick-off, the Leipzig striker came on after Pedri was injured.

Favorite au triomphe final

But then they had to resist the assaults of a Mannschaft carried by the fervour of the MHPArena, those tens of thousands of supporters who had rallied to the stadium on foot, an incandescent crowd, at the start of the afternoon. A huddled Spanish defence, counting down the minutes before the end, took a deep breath when the shot from substitute Niclas Füllkrug, the crowd’s darling, crashed against the post, and finally gave way, so close to the goal (89th), on a half-volley from the young Florian Wirtz. Everything had to be redone, and everything would be redone, at the end of a tense extra time, which the suffering Iberians had spent essentially gaining time to reach the penalty shootout, also saved by a new contentious refereeing decision (a penalty that could have been awarded to the Germans). On a cross from the left, it is from Real Sociedad midfielder Mikel Merino that the unexpected light finally arrives. The euphoric substitutes rush towards the scorer, and the historic Toni Kroos, defeated, lowers his head. Germany is eliminated.

In three weeks of competition, Spain has already pushed aside Croatia (3-0), Italy (1-0), and therefore Germany, all teams that appeared before the summer as serious contenders for the last four. It has only conceded two goals in five games. Sick in the aftermath of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, which it left in the round of 16, against Morocco, La Roja is now the favorite in the race for the final triumph. “We see ourselves as a very strong team that has the potential to aim for the title,” said coach Luis de la Fuente before the match. But before seeing the final, the real one, in Berlin, Dani Olmo’s gang will still have to get rid of a big name, Tuesday in Dortmund. It will be France or Portugal, who face each other this Friday evening.