Two and a half months before the start of the World Cup, Florian Wirtz is already in world-class form. Only the defense was a concern in the 4-3 friendly against Switzerland.
Dan Ndoye (17th minute) put the hosts in the lead in Basel, Jonathan Tah headed the score to 1-1 (26th). Serge Gnabry responded to Breel Embolo’s 2-1 (41′) with another equalizer in stoppage time in the first half (45’+1). After the substitution, Wirtz caused the German fans to celebrate with a brilliant shot into the right corner after an hour, but this fell silent again in the 79th minute after Joel Monteiro made it 3-3. But Wirtz, who had also prepared the first two goals, was unstoppable that evening and scored the 4-3 winning goal in the 85th minute.
Nagelsmann thinks the goals conceded were avoidable
Wirtz then explained to the sports show why he refrained from celebrating after his dream goal: “I just wanted to let it all sink in for a few moments and take in and enjoy the reaction in the stands. Overall, it was definitely my best international game, I’ve never had four scoring points before. But we should work on defending better together as a team; at the World Cup it will be important that we stay compact.”
National coach Julian Nagelsmann analyzed the ARD: “In addition to our many goals, we also had five or six other great chances, which was good. However, the goals we conceded were avoidable, we lost the ball unnecessarily, it shouldn’t become the rule that the opponent scores with so few touches on the ball. With Florian Wirtz, I hope that he packs this form into a bag and preserves it until the World Cup, that was really tongue-in-cheek.”
Kobel saves against Havertz
The game initially got off to a slow start; in the first ten minutes, both teams had apparently put the issue of avoiding mistakes at the top of their to-do list. A one-two between Kai Havertz and Wirtz, who had spontaneously switched to the right side, gave the DFB team the first chance to score, but Gregor Kobel was there from close range.
Joshua Kimmich wasn’t there two minutes later, nor were Nico Schlotterbeck, Angelo Stiller and Oliver Baumann. Kimmich had moved from his unpopular right-back position to central midfield, so Stiller would have had to help out against Ndoye, who was completely free after a bad pass from Schlotterbeck. However, he didn’t get into the duel in time and also missed blocking the shot, which then hit the goalkeeper’s corner – the Hoffenheim keeper Baumann didn’t look good either.
Strong start and yet the deficit. Havertz has to get the ball out of his own net.
Good Corner kick variant – then Schlotterbeck makes a mistake again
But his counterpart also had to accept a hit at the near post. The Germans quickly played out a corner variation, Wirtz then hit the perfect cross to Tah, who visibly surprised Kobel with his header to make it 1-1. In the minutes before and after this goal, the Nagelsmann team combined quickly, fluidly and purposefully, but Havertz missed the opening goal twice (32nd and 36th minutes).
Instead, the Swiss managed to do that again after Schlotterbeck had once again caused a counterattack while building up the game with a sloppy pass into the center. Silvan Widmer was free to cross on the German left side, in the middle Tah was wrong in the six-yard box to his opponent Embolo and also completely lost sight of the ball.
Jonathan Tah didn’t look good against Breel Embolo.
Rieder hits the crossbar, Gnabry hits the goal
Two minutes after the 2-1, the Swiss could have added the third goal, but first Tah cleared with a high-risk but very precise tackle against Rubßen Vargas, then Fabian Rieder placed the follow-up shot from 22 meters onto the crossbar – Baumann would have had no chance. Instead of 1:3, from a German perspective it was 2:2 shortly afterwards because Wirtz unpacked the next stroke of genius – Gnabry refined his through ball into the intersection of the Swiss back four with a lob over Kobel.
In the second half, the German defense seemed much more concentrated right from the start, refrained from making harakiri passes in the build-up and hardly allowed any shots. Goretzka could have taken the lead twice on offense, but was too hectic each time. Wirtz, on the other hand, was calm himself when he conjured up the 3-2 from his ankle after a short corner – from half-right he circled the ball over the Swiss defense and goalkeeper into the long corner.
David Raum (r.) applauds Wirtz for his third direct contribution to the goal of the evening.
Monteiro hits out of nowhere
After that, the 4:2 seemed only a matter of time, especially the substitution of Lennart Karl for the weak Leroy Sané brought extreme revival on the right wing. But after chances were missed by Goretzka and substitute Nick Woltemade, Switzerland equalized with the first shot on goal of the second half – Goretzka had allowed Monteiro to finish freely from 20 meters, Baumann stretched in vain.
The Germans had another answer when Switzerland had already replaced ten (!) players – again by Wirtz, of course. This time the Liverpool player circled an assist from Anton Stach perfectly into the right corner from a central position, and he was able to take Kobel’s head shake as a compliment.
