Nine months before “his” Euro-2024 at home, Germany has plunged a little further into the crisis, humiliated by Japan (4-1) on Saturday evening in Wolfsburg, the fourth defeat in five matches which weakens even more Coach Hansi Flick.
The two friendly matches scheduled for September, against Japan and then France, next Tuesday, were supposed to launch the reconquest of the hearts of the Mannschaft supporters, but the disenchantment is growing as Hansi Flick’s men continue to play against each other. -performance.
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The boos and whistles of the supporters become more and more audible at the end of each German match, and Wolfsburg was no exception to the rule, with some of the supporters leaving even before the whistle. final. A few “Hansi raus!” (“Hansi out!”) even sounded after the fourth Japanese goal, scored in added time.
“We prepare the team in the right way against our opponents. We will continue to do so. We are convinced of what we are doing. This is why it also continues for me, ”assured Flick in a press conference after the meeting.
But Lothar Matthäus, great voice of German football and captain of the 1990 German world champion team, has difficulty seeing how Flick could stay in his post, nine months before the Euro (June 14-July 14, 2024).
“Not many people were behind Hansi Flick anymore. Rudi Völler (the sports director of the selection, Editor’s note) yes. But can we still keep it now? I doubt it,” he said at the microphone of the broadcaster RTL. At the same microphone, Völler admitted that this new defeat hurts. “We are all in shock. Losing 4-1 is a shame, and it was deserved. Such a defeat hurts.”
In the immediate future, the sporting director of the German selection is focusing on Tuesday’s match against the Blues. “We will now return to the training center, we will calm down a little and tomorrow (Sunday, Editor’s note) we will train a little,” he said. “Tuesday, we have another complicated match against France. We should do a little introspection and think about what happens next. We’ll see,” added Völler, to whom the question of Flick’s retention had just been asked. Flick was appointed head of the Mannschaft in the summer of 2021, succeeding the long tenure of Joachim Löw (15 years) crowned with the world title in 2014.
Since its traumatic elimination in the first round of the World Cup in Qatar last fall, the Mannschaft has only won one match, against modest Peru (2-0). She bit the dust against Belgium (3-2), Poland (1-0), Colombia (2-0) and now Japan.
A record that will be very difficult to improve on Tuesday in Dortmund in the Westfalenstadion against the French team, which has achieved five successes in as many matches in qualifying for Euro-2024. And faced with the iron defense of the Blues, who have not conceded a single goal since the start of the qualifiers, Germany risks once again suffering from the absence in its ranks of an international-class center forward .
On Saturday, the Germans once again displayed their enormous defensive shortcomings in the first period against the Samurai Blue, who had precipitated the Qatari disaster by winning at the end of November in Doha (2-1). The first two Japanese goals came from the German left side, with Nico Schlotterbeck overtaken.
Ter Stegen then repelled several Japanese attacks, but could do nothing on a counterattack at the end of the match, concluded by Takuma Asano. Ao Tanaka’s fourth goal only amplified the rout. Under pressure after the failures of the friendly matches in March and June, Hansi Flick tried to innovate by repositioning Kimmich on the right side of the defense, with an offensive role during phases of ball possession. He had also given the captain’s armband to Gündogan. These tests have not been transformed in the field.
I know that in professional football there is a lot of dynamics. I can’t predict what will happen. For my part, with the staff, I think we are trying everything to prepare this team. I think we do it well and I think I’m the right coach,” said Hansi Flick at RTL’s microphone. Germany were corrected by Japan in Wolfsburg, their fourth defeat in the last five friendly matches, a rout which increasingly weakens the coach’s situation.
“Above all, we are extremely disappointed,” analyzes Flick, “more than ever on the hot seat. We currently don’t have the means to beat a very compact defense. It was simply too little. We took a good one on the face. We have to shake ourselves up and try to show another face on the pitch against France. »Appointment is made on Tuesday in Dortmund.