At the very beginning, the German and English national football teams were on the same level, but that changed, and quite quickly. At the very beginning, both teams got on their knees in the center circle of the Munich Arena to protest against racism.
And unlike last Saturday, when the English were whistled at by the Hungarian spectators for this gesture at their game in Budapest, this time there was applause from the stands.
After that, the harmony between the two teams on the pitch was over for the time being. The Germans dominated events from the start, they took the lead at the beginning of the second half – and in the end had to settle for a 1-1 (0-0) draw against the European runners-up in the prestige duel. England captain Harry Kane converted a penalty kick two minutes from time, which the referee had only awarded after the intervention of the video assistant.
Hansi Flick remains undefeated after his eleventh game as national coach, but after the draws against Holland, Italy and now England he still lacks a win against a so-called great.
Beating a big one was clearly the goal. The Germans started furiously, as if they still had something to fix. In fact, the national coach, who actually understands players, was quite critical for his standards after the 1-1 draw against Italy. There were some things he didn’t like about the performance in Bologna.
The team obviously wanted to do better against the English. After just one minute, Kai Havertz fired the first shot on goal. After two minutes, Kyle Walker was able to clear the Germans’ first corner just before Thomas Müller.
Flick had changed his initial formation to seven positions after the draw in Italy three days earlier. Only Manuel Neuer, Antonio Rüdiger, Joshua Kimmich and Thomas Müller survived the rotation unscathed. Even Thilo Kehrer got it this time, who had made it into the starting XI in every game under Flick up to that point. “This is not a consequence of the Italy game,” said the national coach about the many changes. “We have a great quality in the team, that’s why we act like that.”
The English, who lost their first Nations League game in Hungary 0-1, played with almost the same team – the same team that ended the era of national coach Joachim with a 2-0 win at Wembley almost a year ago Löw had finished. Only Mason Mount (for Luke Shaw) was new in the starting XI. Five players from the German team were still on the field in Munich.
Nevertheless, for a long time it was a completely different game than eleven months ago. The Germans were the more dominant team, with most of the action taking place in the English half. Only the last step was missing. A goal by Jonas Hofmann was ruled out due to an offside position, Jamal Musiala narrowly missed a low cross from the Gladbacher in the middle – and failed with a shot at goalkeeper Jason Pickford just before the break.
The English, who were mainly waiting for counterattacks with their fast strikers, only became really dangerous in injury time in the first half. Bukayo Sako was initially denied by the well-reacting goalkeeper Manuel Neuer and narrowly missed the goal on his next attempt, also in added time. Given the circumstances with the tight schedule at the end of a long season, it was a very entertaining event for the 66,289 spectators in the sold-out arena.
This also applied to the first promising action of the second half – when the Germans let the ball run in their ranks for a long time, like before the goal against Italy, and found their way in at the right moment: Joshua Kimmich served with a fine one Pass to Hofmann, who cleverly released himself, and he made it 1-0 in the 51st minute with a poorly placed but powerful shot.
This time the English didn’t wait until injury time to react. Mount almost failed in return with a long-range shot at Neuer. The guests increased the pressure, but Flick’s team withstood the challenge for a long time. Only the reassuring second goal was missing. Chances were there: for Thomas Müller, among others, who failed at Pickford after a cross from the strong David Raum, as did Timo Werner later. So things became more and more precarious for the Germans. Until Nico Schlotterbeck ran into Harry Kane’s heels in his own penalty area and the referee
