A successful start to the World Cup year
©IMAGO
The German national team had an open exchange of blows with Switzerland at the start of the World Cup year. The four-time world champion won the game in Basel’s St.-Jakob-Park 4-3. The goals for Julian Nagelsmann’s team were scored by Jonathan Tah, Serge Gnabry and Florian Wirtz twice. Bayern talent Lennart Karl also celebrated his DFB debut.
The gala performance of the 22-year-old Wirtz, less than three months before the start of the tournament in America, could not hide many worrying defensive weaknesses. National coach Nagelsmann still has a lot of work to do with a long list of defects – otherwise the big World Cup goals will remain just a football dream. A glimmer of hope was the brisk DFB debut of Bayern young star Karl.
In front of 34,316 spectators in the sold-out St. Jakob-Park, Dan Ndoye (17th minute) and Breel Embolo (41st minute) took advantage of naive defensive mistakes by the DFB team in the first half to score Swiss goals. Tah with his debut goal (26th) and Gnabry (45th + 2) equalized after preparatory work by Wirtz. But the magic foot scored in the 62nd and 86th minutes in the new blue World Cup jerseys for Germany’s starting victory in 2026, after Joel Monteiro had equalized for Switzerland in a wild game (78th). Already on Monday in Stuttgart in the second tough test against Ghana, the role play of the World Cup candidates propagated by Nagelsmann must work much better in order to fuel the hoped-for optimism towards America.
DFB team: Havertz unlucky – Wirtz outstanding
Arsenal striker Kai Havertz was also well presented and had a few opportunities in the first half, but he was not able to score a goal in his hour-long appearance. First he failed with an unplaced shot past Dortmund keeper Gregor Kobel (13th), then Manuel Akanji used his head to prevent a possible goal from the former Leverkusen player (26th) and finally Havertz put a ball over the goal in a promising position (36th).
The fact that the four-time world champion fell behind twice under the watchful eye of former national coach Joachim Löw was particularly due to Schlotterbeck. Both goals were preceded by bad passes from the highly regarded BVB defender. When Ndoye scored his first goal, Baumann also looked bad; the shot at the near corner didn’t seem unstoppable. And when the second goal was conceded by ex-Gladbacher Embolo, there was a mismatch between the keeper and Tah. It could have hit Baumann a third time before the break when Augsburg’s Fabian Rieder hit the crossbar (43′). Nagelsmann appeared dissatisfied on the sidelines because of the many mistakes.
The offensive was carried by the strong Wirtz. For the first goal, Tah used a cross from Wirtz – with kind help from Kobel – to score his first international goal in the 44th game. For the second goal, Gnabry was there after a dream pass from the ex-Leverkusen player. Wirtz’s performance was crowned with the remarkable goal in the 59th minute. After a quick corner from Gnabry, the playmaker put the ball over Kobel from the left corner of the penalty area and into the goal. Shortly before, the England legionnaire had another chance from distance (53′). And it got even better: Five minutes before the end, Wirtz flicked the ball into the top right corner.
The counterpart to Wirtz was Leroy Sané, who often seemed apathetic. His substitution after 63 minutes was long overdue. Bayern youngster Lennart Karl came into the team for Sané – making his national team debut. It is the current highlight for FC Bayern’s whiz kid, who was an invigorating element immediately after his substitution. And yet in the end it was almost not enough to win. Because the German defensive group again did not act consistently enough, Monteiro equalized with a fine shot from a good 20 meters. But Wirtz made the difference that evening.
