Hansi Flick’s historic evening – with a bland aftertaste

But regardless of the expandable balance, the German team still has a lot of room for improvement after this draw.

“I don’t think you can be completely satisfied after this game,” summed up Flick after the final whistle on TV station RTL. “The initial phase was okay, but then we didn’t find the space and lost our rhythm. It was a balanced game overall,” said the 57-year-old, who could live with the point, but his team still had a lot of room for improvement above” saw.

Thomas Müller, who is positioned in the central attacking midfield, saw it similarly: “Especially in the first half we had too many unforced errors (unforced errors, editor’s note), as they say in tennis. We actually started well, but then delayed the game due to his own mistakes in possession of the ball,” said the Bayern star. “Our aim is to play forward more dominantly and purposefully – with a lower error rate.”

In particular, the central players, attacker Timo Werner and Zehner Müller, kept dropping backwards in order to get ball action against the Italians who were on the defensive. With Werner (30 ball contacts), Sané (39) and Müller (43), three offensive players in the DFB team were among the players with the fewest ball contacts. Serge Gnabry also rarely showed his skills and kept dribbling the ball.

And the wing play of the German team hardly developed. Neither Leipzig’s Benjamin Henrichs, who was preferred to Gladbach’s Jonas Hofmann on the right, nor Flick’s “favorite player” Thilo Kehrer (played all games under Flick from the start) were able to put pressure on the back four of the “Squadra Azzurra”.

Coach Roberto Mancini’s inexperienced team held up well – and waited for a counterattack. The 28,000 spectators in the Stadio Renato Dall’Ara, which was not completely sold out, repeatedly acknowledged their team’s performance with encouraging applause and celebrated themselves with La Ola waves. As is well known, they will miss their team sorely at the World Cup in Qatar.