The German national team won their first friendly match of the World Cup year 4-3 against Switzerland. In a wild exchange of blows in Basel, a star presents himself in top form. But two professionals at the same time is a total failure. The individual criticism.
William Laing reports from Basel
The German national team got off to a successful start to the new year – in a spectacular game: the DFB team won 4-3 in the first international match of 2026 at the classic in Switzerland. But it had a lot of work. National coach Julian Nagelsmann still spoke of a “deserved victory” and noted: “Switzerland scored a lot of goals from a few chances.”
However, the German team revealed many worrying defensive weaknesses in the game in Basel. Nagelsmann expected “a game at eye level.” And the national coach was right. Even though the German team wanted to ignite World Cup anticipation with a lot of ball control and high pressing, serious mistakes crept in on defense. The DFB team was too easy to outplay on the Swiss counterattacks.
You can read about who was in great form against Switzerland – and who was a complete failure – in the photo show above or here.
The next test for the DFB team on the way to the World Cup in the USA, Canada and Mexico awaits on Monday. In the second tough test in Stuttgart against Ghana, the role play of the World Cup candidates propagated by Nagelsmann must work much better in order to fuel the hoped-for optimism towards America.
