National football team
Completely ready to defend: Nagelsmann’s title defense
The national team won back the hearts of the fans – and also with a good defense. The defensive balance in 2024 will be better than it has been for a long time. A year ago the numbers were dramatic.
Despite all the enthusiasm for the football skills of Jamal Musiala and Florian Wirtz: A decisive development of the national team took place in 2024 in a part of the team other than the department for magic and creativity. The wisdom that a good offense wins games, but a good defense is responsible for tournament success, has apparently found its way into national coach Julian Nagelsmann‘s plans.
The result: Even if it wasn’t enough to win the home European Championship in the summer due to the unfortunate 1:2 after extra time in the quarter-finals against Spain, the DFB team‘s defense hasn’t been as good as it was this year for a long time. This increases title hopes for the 2025 Nations League and 2026 World Cup.
If you compare the goals conceded records of the DFB team since 2018, when the sporting decline, which has now been halted, began dramatically with the early World Cup exit in Russia, the national team is ahead of the last two games in the group phase of the Nations League on Saturday (8.45 p.m./RTL) in Freiburg against Bosnia-Herzegovina and three days later in Budapest against Hungary (8.45 p.m./ZDF).
There have only been nine goals conceded in the 13 games so far this year, an average of 0.69 goals per game. Only in 2021 did they concede an average of 0.81 goals (13 goals/16 games). The record was particularly bad in the first Corona year of 2020 with 16 goals conceded in just eight games (average 2.0). The same rate, but absolutely the most goals conceded, occurred in 2023 (22/11).
Nagelsmann also played a part in this with eight goals conceded in his first four international matches as national coach. After the 2:3 against Turkey and the 0:2 in Austria exactly a year ago, radical measures were taken, for example Jonathan Tah and Antonio Rüdiger were appointed as the first central defender duo and Joshua Kimmich was ordered back into the back four on the right.
Never conceded more than two goals
For the first time since 2021 – at least so far – there has been an international year without conceding at least three goals in a game. Only Spain scored twice in 120 minutes in Stuttgart and the Netherlands in a 2-2 draw against Germany in the Nations League in Amsterdam in September.
The good defensive statistics in the top European comparison also continued in the UEFA competition. There have been three goals conceded in the four games so far. In the top league A, this value is only bettered by Spain (1 goal conceded) with the same goal difference (+7).
Goals conceded record of the national football team since 2018
YearGamesGatedGoalsGated per game 201813171.31201910121.2020208162.00202116130.81202212151.25202311222.0020241390.69
dpa
