For the first time in the DFB history, Germany lost a World Cup qualification game away-hosts Slovakia made the completely indisposed DFB team ridiculous.
David Hancko (42nd) brought the host into the lead in the well -deserved 2-0 on Thursday evening (04.09.2025) in Bratislava, David Strelec followed the second goal in the 55th minute. In view of the catastrophic German defense performance and an uninspired, unimaginative offensive, but also a completely chaotic -looking tactical basic order, the result could have been even more drastic, but the Oliver Baumann prevented several times in the German goal.
Kimmich warns: “So we don’t go to the World Cup”
National coach Julian Nagelsmann then expressed himself in the ARD interview: “The opponent was superior to us. We lacked emotionality from the first to the last minute – so you cannot win a game. If we continue with this, with the handbrake attracted and only 80 percent, then we will have to go to the playoffs in March – if we want it, we have to continue. were.”
Baumann also spoke plain text: “The basics were missing, aggressiveness, duel behavior, the emotionality. We all have to put on a big shovel.” Captain Joshua Kimmich: “We all know that this was a very, very bad game from each individual. We talked about the World Cup Cup beforehand, but if we go on like this, we don’t even go to the World Cup.”
First dropout after almost two minutes
After almost two minutes, the DFB team made the first capital dropout, which would have meant almost the early deficit. Ondrej Duda did not get any resistance from the left, nobody at the five -meter space took the walking paths of Milan Skriniar and Lubomir Satka, both of whom appeared freely before Baumann – but ultimately disabled each other.
The Germans then tried to get a quick structure, with debutant Nnmandi Collins on the right side and Maximilian Mittelstädt acted extremely offensive. But that was completely at the expense of the defensive department, which also then left a fearsome impression.
Position error, Suspenders, lost running duels
Positional errors lined up to individual dropouts, lost running duels of hanebüchen duel behavior – only Baumann kept the overview in the first half hour. First David Hancko failed from an acute angle at the Hoffenheim goalkeeper, then the 35-year-old parried twice against Leo Sauer, who had previously made Antonio Rüdiger, who had previously ridiculed.
In the 22nd minute the ball even landed at the German post, Duda had pulled a corner kick directly to the goal from the left – but Baumann was also in the endangered short corner and would have been there. In addition to Rüdiger and Jonathan Tah, Collins, in addition to Rüdiger and Jonathan Tah. The Frankfurter usually played a classic right wing, waiting for balls at the front, but they didn’t come. Accordingly, he was missing in the back throughout the first half, and if he wanted to go on defensive duels, he kept showing him up.
Rüdiger does not meet – Hancko meets
In the 33rd minute, the only real chance of scoring the DFB team arose from a ball win from Stiller, Wirtz turned over three Slovak defenders, but failed to goalkeeper Martin Dubravka with his low shot. A German leadership would also have been a joke in terms of performance, but Slovakia also made far too little superiority for David Strelec.
Three minutes before the break, the hosts then achieved the well -deserved wages of their efforts: Wirtz lost the ball at the front, Collins was once again missing as a security, then Tah and Rüdiger against Strelec and Hancko were left behind. At the end of the error chain, Rüdiger did not take the Hancko route, although Leon Goretzka still shouted at him – this time Baumann also had no chance.
Schweinsteiger brings new comeback into conversation
By the way, there was an interesting discussion about Baumann before the kick -off. ARD expert Bastian Schweinsteiger answered the question of whether he thinks Baumann for the right World Cup goalkeeper if Marc-André Ter does not become fit again after his back surgery or remains a substitute in the club: “Then I would see who has a German passport and is the best – and that is still for me Manuel Neuer. I would try to bring him back for the World Cup.”
Baumann was the slightest reproach that evening, even with the second goal, no fault was made.
Experiment with Collins ended at the break
At that time, Nagelsmann had already ended the Collins experiment and ordered Mittelstädt to the right defense side for him – he had never acted there in his professional career. On the left side, David Raum came into the game and added seamlessly: the Leipziger miserably lost the header duel on the outer lane before 0: 2, stumbled in the center of Tah and Rüdiger again only to their opponents, so that Strelec had a free firing track and the ball perfectly fell into the left angle.
Nagelsmann’s expression on the bench became increasingly petrified, his new assistant Benjamin Hübner also seemed stunned – also because there was no rearing at all. The national coach was still trying to give the offensive department with the substitutes of Nadiem Amiri and Karim Adeyemi new impulses, but the two went as well as during the entire game of Nick Woltemade or Serge Gnabry. For the DFB team, it was already the third defeat in series after the Nations League, the pressure before the game on Sunday against Northern Ireland (8:45 p.m.) is already growing extremely.