Agile and yet not effective enough: Germany’s Florian Wirtz (l.) and Emre Akbaba from Turkey Photo: dpa/picture-alliance
From BZ/dpa
Julian Nagelsmann dared too much: After a lot of offensive power and hair-raising defensive errors, the German national soccer team suffered its first defeat under the new national coach. Havertz was a can opener and an unlucky person at the same time.
The 2:3 (1:2) against Turkey in the Berlin Olympic Stadium, which was sold out with 72,592 spectators, was a bitter dampener in the mood seven months before the home European Championship kicked off. In order to get back to the capital for the final on July 14, 2024, Nagelsmann still has to do a lot of work.
Kai Havertz scores 1-0 for the German national team in the friendly against Turkey Photo: dpa/picture-alliance
Kai Havertz (5th minute), who was surprisingly called up as left defender, and Niclas Füllkrug (48th) scored the goals in an extremely attacking DFB team. The Turks not only exposed the deficits in the backward movement with the goals from Ferdi Kadioglu (38th) and Kenan Yildiz (45th + 2). Yusuf Sari’s penalty goal (71′) after Havertz’s handball finally sealed the defeat.
DFB keeper Trapp can only watch the ball Photo: AP
There will be a chance to make amends on Tuesday (8:45 p.m./ZDF). Then it’s in Vienna against Austria against another European Championship participant. Small historical glimmer of hope: When Germany lost against Turkey for the last time in 2005 (1:2), a few months later there was the World Cup summer fairy tale.
Captain Ilkay Gündogan’s team was greeted with whistles and boos by the tens of thousands of Turkish fans in the arena as they warmed up.
Gündogan played against his parents’ home country for the first time and experienced something like an away game. Things will be completely different at the European Championships next summer.