Germany wins again in the Giuseppe-Mazza Stadium. A special development can be seen in the ranks.
Benjamin Zurmühl reports from Milan
It was almost exactly a year ago that the German national team played against France in Lyon. Around 500 fans saw the 2-0 win of the DFB team against the Vice World Champion from the guest block. The travelers who traveled with them were hardly really heard in the Groupama Stadium. If fans were loud, it was the French.
It was different yesterday on Thursday. In the Milan Giuseppe-Mazza Stadium it was the German fans who explained the tone at the first leg in the Nation’s League quarter-finals. The DFB had reported around 3,500, but there were probably a few more who had taken the way to the Italian fashion metropolis. Maybe because you had such good memories at Milan thanks to the 1990 World Cup. But maybe also because the connection between fans and national team is now different.
For ten years, not so many fans had traveled to a DFB international match abroad. In 2015 there were several thousand supporters in Glasgow against Scotland a year after the World Cup title. Before the game, national coach Julian Nagelsmann considered the support as “praise to the team”, which again “created a good connection to fans”.
This “good connection” was loudly audible. In the past, there were only isolated “Germany” calls, the DFB supporters sang five minutes before the kick-off: “Without Germany, nothing would be going on here.”
And even during the game, it was actually the guest block that was louder. While the Italians only made or jumped a little after the leadership and after big opportunities, the Germans were consistently present. ARD commentator Tom Bartels also noticed the change in the stands. “It is rare to hear the German fans so well,” he noticed in the second half.
The end of the alienation between the national team and fans is noticeable. The trend is the other way around. Now it is important for the DFB selection to maintain this feeling. On Sunday she has the next chance in the second leg in Dortmund.