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Pandemic, Pandev, breakdown

2021-03-31T21:55:49.809Z


For the third time in long World Cup history, Germany lost a game in World Cup qualification. The players looked tired, the national coach should have rotated. This bankruptcy nullifies the mood swing.


Enlarge image

Serge Gnabry misses two good chances against North Macedonia

Photo: 

WOLFGANG RATTAY / REUTERS

Historical:

The German national team has been participating in the World Cup qualification since 1934.

Since then there have been two defeats, against Portugal in 1985 and England in 2001.

And now against North Macedonia.

After the successes against Iceland and Romania, the next three points were firmly planned, you could even notice a subtle change in mood among the national team.

All the more it will now be a question of whether this young team with the outgoing national coach Joachim Löw will be able to survive the preliminary round at the European Championship in two months.

The result:

North Macedonia won 2-1 (1-0) in Duisburg against a tired looking DFB team.

Read the match report here.

Greetings to Munich:

"I can no longer show consideration." That was what Löw said before the three-pack in the World Cup qualification.

In contrast to last year, when Löw spared some players because of the pandemic and the associated strain, the focus is now on preparing for the EM.

After the win in Bucharest, Löw changed his starting line-up to just two positions.

That also means: Joshua Kimmich, Leon Goretzka, Serge Gnabry and Leroy Sané will go into the coming weeks with three appearances in seven days at Bayern with games against Leipzig and PSG.

After this course of the game you have to realize: rotation would have been better.

Corona instead of triple chain:

home game against, if you may, football dwarf North Macedonia.

It's hard to build tension.

The same thing happened to the new RTL expert Uli Hoeneß (read a review here about his first appearance at the game against Iceland).

In the run-up to the game, Hoeneß could only be seriously upset when it came to the vaccination problem and the general corona situation in Germany ("Our health authorities are the best in the world").

Hoeneß and moderator Florian König did not notice that Löw switched to a three-way chain when the ball was in possession, which was designed quite flexibly during the game.

Missing vote:

Against the two strikers Goran Pandev and Aleksandar Trajkovski from northern Mecedonia, Löw opted for the new defensive formation.

This also resulted in changes on the offensive.

Robin Gosens turned the original 3-4-3 into almost a 3-3-4 on the left.

Sané moved to the right and Kai Havertz was allowed to move even more in the tens area.

The room layout was initially wrong, because Goretzka and Ilkay Gündoğan often pushed into the attacking third.

In the initial phase, despite the great dominance, there was only one big chance, Goretzka hit the crossbar from twelve meters (9th minute).

Pandev shows it:

The bad exploitation of chances has been the dominant topic since the narrow success against Romania.

In the first half, the DFB team took up this problem.

In the strongest phase Gnabry (27./31.) And Havertz (34.) gave three very good opportunities.

North Macedonia's Grand Seigneur Goran Pandev, who at the age of 37 now plays in Genoa, did better.

In stoppage time, Enis Bardhi prevailed against Gosens and Goretzka, Pandev was forgotten in the center and pushed in free-standing (45th + 2).

Enlarge image

Goran Pandev after his opening goal against Germany

Photo: 

Martin Meissner / AP

A plea for the VAR:

The World Cup qualification is one of the last competitions at the highest level in which there are no video assistants.

Football purists are happy about this, but this game has once again shown what a great achievement video evidence is - if it is used sensibly and less actionistically than in some cases in the Bundesliga.

The penalty for Germany (63rd), Sané was only hit minimally on the foot, might have been withdrawn, especially the DFB-Elf should have received a penalty in Emre Can's handball (76th) in their own penalty area.

The greatest chance:

Before Eljif Elmas made the sensation perfect against another disoriented back team, the substitute Timo Werner should have put the DFB team in the lead.

Gündogan picked up the pace on a counterattack, pulled from the left into the penalty area and lays across.

Werner stood free, chose his left foot - and didn't hit the ball at all (80th).

That was the icing on the cake of the discussion about exploiting opportunities.

"Top game" in September:

What happens in the World Cup qualification?

After this defeat, the DFB-Elf are only in third place in Group J, only the group first qualifies directly for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

Now seven more games have to be played, spread over three double or triple game days in September, October and November.

On September 2nd they go to Liechtenstein, three days later the home game against the current leaders from Armenia follows.

Source: spiegel

All sports articles on 2021-03-31

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