Nations League
© Imago
Florian Wirtz serves his yellow lock in a painfully way. Bayer star, which was violated for the quarter-final first leg of the German national team in the Nations League against Italy, is missing. For national coach Julian Nagelsmann, the UEFA regulations can still become a huge problem this week.
Five of his players in the current squad go to the first game against Squadra Azzurra on Thursday (8:45 p.m./ARD) in Milan with one or even three warnings. The result: In the event of another yellow card, the national coach has to do without the player in question in the decisive second leg next Sunday (8:45 p.m./RTL) in Dortmund.
In addition, almost the whole German defense is affected. Captain Joshua Kimmich, Antonio Rüdiger, David Raum and the defensive midfielder Robert Andrich are pre -contaminated with one yellow card. BVB interior defender Nico Schlotterbeck has even seen yellow three times in the current competition and would have to watch in the group phase with a further warning as against Bosnia-Herzegovina (7-0). His Dortmund colleague Waldemar Anton was once warned, but this time was not nominated by Nagelsmann.
The UEFA rules for the Nations League are clear: there is a game break after two yellow cards each. The warnings are only deleted after the quarter-final games. No player can miss the semi-finals or final at the final four tournament in June because of yellow cards.
In retrospect, the yellow card of Jonathan Tah in the group game against Bosnia-Herzegovina (7-0) in November proves to be cheap. The Leverkusener missed the sporty, insignificant game in Hungary (1: 1) due to its second warning and can now allow itself to be a possible third warning against Italy without consequences. In addition to newcomer Yann Bisseck from Inter Milan, he is the only not significantly preloaded central defender Nagelsmann.