Nations League: Happy draw, hardly any chances to score

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No getting through: Timo Werner against Hungary's Willi Orban

Photo: ATTILA KISBENEDEK / AFP

The scene of the game:

In the 72nd minute, Kai Havertz had a good idea.

And the timing to play the ball deep so that Jonas Hofmann was free in front of the goal but not offside.

But face to face with Hungary goalkeeper Péter Gulácsi, Hofmann, who had scored himself 63 minutes earlier, seemed to be thinking.

The Gladbacher looked for Timo Werner, who had run with him, with a cross pass – and did not find him because Willi Orban interfered in time.

"Of course, I have to be blamed for not making it 2-1," said Hofmann on the RTL microphone after the game.

"I didn't expect the goalkeeper to stand still for so long." No conclusion, no danger: A symbol for a DFB-Elf who only scored one of six shots against Hungary, six less than the supposed outsider.

The project,

The result:

1:1 (1:1) separates the German national football team from Hungary in Budapest.

It is the third German draw in the third game of the Nations League group A3, and it was probably the one in which the DFB-Elf showed their weakest performance so far.

Read the match report here.

Flick's pious wish:

1: 1, 1: 1, 1: 1: The most recent international matches against England, Italy and in March against the Netherlands showed that the German national team can keep up internationally - but nothing more.

In the World Cup year, however, the demands are high, and so national coach Hansi Flick was dissatisfied with the detailed work before the game.

"We didn't put that much pressure on the ball against the Netherlands and England, especially in the last third," said Flick.

»We want to do this for 90 minutes.«

The first half:

In fact, Flick saw the most stubborn pressing in Budapest.

Only on the part of the Hungarians, who were the more dangerous team right from the start: Roland Sallais's header saved Manuel Neuer with a paw (6th), and the DFB captain was powerless when Zsolt Nagy followed up.

Hofmann, who scored again four days after his goal against England (9th), corrected the result quickly, but the German national team remained far from dominating football.

Shortly before the break, Neuer even had to parry again in dire need. A foot defense saved the draw against Attila Fiola's shot from an acute angle (44').

Between slapstick and spectacle:

Nico Schlotterbeck, 22, and David Raum, 24, are among the high-flyers in the DFB team.

This is mainly due to the fact that both of them do great things with the ball at their feet - as can be seen, for example, in Schlotterbeck's wonderful volleyball to Hofmann before the 1:1 (9th) or in Raum's flick with the weak right foot, which scored the Hungarian goal just missed (40th).

Only both are first and foremost defenders, Schlotterbeck inside, space outside.

And the duo wobbled defensively: Schlotterbeck wandered around in his own penalty area when he conceded a goal and was later shown a yellow card (36'), while Hungary's Fiola made space play dizzy at times (27').

Maybe the two can at least get used to it soon: ex-Freiburger Schlotterbeck has already switched to Borussia Dortmund, and BVB is also said to be interested in the Hoffenheim area.

Harmless guest:

Anyway, one would have imagined the German visit to Budapest to be more unpleasant for the host.

Because the game has a history: when the two nations last met at the European Championships in Munich, fans with rainbow colors protested against discriminatory legislation in Hungary, Leon Goretzka showed the Hungarian curve the heart symbol after his goal.

On Tuesday, the DFB-Elf knelt in anti-racist solidarity with the English, who were whistled at in Budapest for this gesture.

Now the German team was a guest in the Puskás Aréna - and was reserved and apolitical.

You can only hold that against her to a limited extent, but it gives the actions of the past a smack of laziness.

The second half:

The German team was now better in the game, but better still didn't mean good in this case.

Flick only used the opportunity late to experiment, but when new, fresh strikers like Karim Adeyemi and Lukas Nmecha entered the field in the final phase, the DFB team was again primarily concerned with defending.

British Hungarians, British Poles, Polish Hungarians:

In the Hungarian eleven, however, there were three Sallais or Szalais in different spellings, two Nagys - and Callum styles from Bury, England.

The 1.67 meter tall British midfielder made his international debut in spring thanks to a Hungarian grandmother and is representative of the trend among English professionals to choose the national teams of their ancestors.

At the same time, Matthew Cash scored his first international goal against the Netherlands – for Poland.

In view of this mixed situation, an almost Babylonian linguistic confusion also seemed to be gaining a foothold in the RTL broadcast, commentator Marco Hagemann corrected himself several times from Poland to Hungary and spontaneously renamed the bearded Magyar striker, Martin Ádám, to Adam Martin.

Summer will soon be real again:

All in all, most of those involved seemed a little ready for vacation after a long season, and we can't blame them.

After all: After the game against Italy (Tuesday 8.45 p.m., TV: RTL) international matches will end until September.