Germany, host of the Euro Cup, is only a week away from the start of the championship and the feelings could not be more conflicted after winning narrowly against Greece (1-1) with a comeback ‘in extremis’ in a duel in which Manuel Neuer failed again.
The German team has already come from a draw against Ukraine that generated some ‘runrun’, but what was unexpected in the last friendly before the Euro was what was seen at Borussia Park, where mistakes marked the Mannschaft’s game .
This time it cannot be blamed on the eleven presented by Julian Nagelsmann. He was on the pitch with Toni Kroos, who completed every minute of the match, and with players who are mainstays such as Ilkay Gündogan, Julian Wirtz, Jamaal Musiala, Antonio Rüdiger and Joshua Kimmich. The coach came out with the closest thing to what would be an ideal eleven, but even with that he couldn’t find the best version of his country.
What’s more, in the first half if anyone deserved to come out with another goal it was Greece. More than on its own merits, because of the facilities Germany showed as a rival, made inexperienced mistakes. Neuer played angel and devil. He went from an inexplicable double save against Tzolis to an amazing call. An easy ball slipped through his hands and Masouras finished with an empty goal (33′).
The first half ended with Germany already giving some warning and the second half version was clearly better, although ineffective for a long time in terms of clarity of chances. Havertz, a product of persistence, tricked to find the tie while Nagelsmann’s carousel of changes did little to affect the German’s control.
One of the new faces that came in was responsible for completing the comeback when there was little time left. A few minutes after a crossbar from Henrichs, Gross connected from outside the area to hook it into the woodwork and give some hope to his fans (89′), who should not be too optimistic before the debut against Scotland next Friday.
Germany
21
Greece
Germany: Manuel Neuer; Joshua Kimmich (Benjamin Henrichs, m.68), Jonathan Tah, Antonio Rudiger (Nico Schlotterbeck, m.68), Maximilian Mittelstadt (David Raum, .46); Toni Kroos, Robert Andrich (Pascal Gross, m.68); Jamal Musiala, Ikay Gundogan (Niklas Fullkrug, m.68), Florian Wirtz (Leroy Sané, m.46); and Kai Havertz.
Greece: Odysseas Vlachodimos (Georgios Athanasiadis, d.78); Lazaros Rota, Konstantinos Mavropanos, Pantelis Hatzidiakos, Dimitris Giannoulis; Manolis Siopis, Petros Mantalos (Dimitros Kourbelis, d.79); Giorgos Massouras (Anastasios Douvikas, d.68), Anastasios Bakasetas (Andreas Bouchalakis, d.68), Christos Tzolis; and Fotis Ioannidis (Vangelis Pavlidis, m.9)
The objectives: 0-1, m.34: Georgios Masouras; 1-1, m.55: Kai Havertz; 2-1, m.89: Pascal Gross.
Referee: Jose Luis Munuera Montero (ESP). He showed a yellow card to Dimitrios Giannoulis, from Greece.
Incidents: friendly international match held at Borussia Park stadium in Monchengladbach
see the match sheet
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
