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The king of the reservists: Joker Niclas Füllkrug celebrates his equalizing goal
Photo: IMAGO/ULMER / IMAGO/Ulmer/Team photo
A fairy tale:
It was always impressive what the German attackers brought onto the pitch against Spain: great possession, dribbling under pressure.
There were also one or the other nice pass.
This can be seen when Leroy Sané staged the conspicuous Jamal Musiala, who made the first contact and got into the penalty area.
But what happened next was more important: Substitute Niclas Füllkrug, nicknamed "Gap", pushed himself between the ball and teammates and stole the ball from Musiala's foot.
Then the striker from Werder Bremen took a swing – and threw the ball into the goal to equalize.
Füllkrug showed impressively how to refine a creative move.
There was enough of that against Japan, just nobody who scored goals from it.
A year ago, Füllkrug scored goals in the second division.
Now he's saving Germany at a World Cup and it's being discussed whether he doesn't belong better in the starting XI.
A fairy tale.
Because of stories like that, football is still fun despite all the badness.
The result:
1:1 (0:0) separates the German national team from Spain.
A performance-based result, and that can be interpreted as a compliment to the team of national coach Hansi Flick.
Here is the match report.
You should stand on their feet:
National coach Hansi Flick had surprisingly only filled three positions in his 26-man squad for the World Cup with defensively capable midfielders.
He wanted to see them all from the start against Spain: alongside Joshua Kimmich, his Bayern colleague Leon Goretzka started on the double six, while İlkay Gündoğan moved up to the ten.
From there he sometimes man-marked Spain's Sergio Busquets.
The DFB-Elf made it clear: Spain's heart, the midfield, should not be given any room to develop.
Escape artists in red:
The German team was not interested in simply destroying the game.
On the contrary: it was clear to both teams that they always preferred combination football to quick-fix football.
Organized pressing and ball-safe passing met at a high level, often with the better end for the Spaniards.
If they could play their way through the German block, it became dangerous: Manuel Neuer deflected a shot from Dani Olmo onto the crossbar (8th minute).
Ferran Torres pushed the ball unchallenged over the goal from ten meters – but a goal wouldn't have counted because of offside (33').
Toni's great shots:
There is a video on YouTube that records Antonio Rüdiger's shot attempts from a distance.
The compilation counts more than a million views, the game against Spain added another overzealous violent shot from a good 30 meters to the collection.
"Every 560 deals get one in," commented ZDF expert Sandro Wagner laconically.
In fact, Rüdiger came very close to a German lead twice more: once with a header from offside (40'), once with a volley from an acute angle (45').
Bambi and the Best Agers:
After the Joachim Löw era, successor Flick was to initiate a change.
It only worked to a limited extent: against Spain, the DFB-Elf was as old as any German World Cup team since the final in 2002. An exception was 19-year-old Musiala, who competed in the triel of child prodigies with Gavi (18) and Pedri ( 20 years) was allowed to measure on the Spanish side.
Germany's hope for the future struggled for a long time, but was in the game after a dribble that earned opponent Busquets a yellow card (44').
The longer the game went on, the more Musiala's tricks and quick changes of direction bore fruit.
The fact that Flick let him play through as the only offensive spoke volumes about Musiala's importance.
Order plus exhaustion equal chaos:
The second half then became wilder as the forces waned in this intense game.
Joshua Kimmich had the lead on his foot (56th), the Spaniard Álvaro Morata, who came on at break, actually did it (61st) and showed how valuable it was with his demanding finish when he let a cross slide into the goal with the first contact can be a center forward.
Flick followed suit with the substitution of Füllkrug, who was first overlooked by Musiala (73'), then equalized (83') and finally could have celebrated with Sané, who was also substituted on, but who didn't play a counterattack quite cleanly (90'). +6).
Everything in your own hands:
It sounds crazy after only one point from two games, but: The German team doesn't need any support on Thursday (8 p.m., TV: ARD/Magenta) to make it to the round of 16.
What they need instead is an eight-goal win over Costa Rica.
But more likely is Schützenhilfe from Spain.
If La Roja wins against Japan, every win is enough for the DFB-Elf.
In the event of a draw in the parallel game, Germany would have to defeat Costa Rica by two or more goals.
To put it in Manuel Neuer's words: "The important thing is: We're still alive."
