At the World Cup he was only allowed to play the supporting actor for Germany, on Saturday evening (March 25th, 2023) in the test against Peru, center forward Niclas Füllkrug saved national coach Hansi Flick the restart single-handedly. When it was 2-0 (2-0), the Bremen player scored both goals.
Overall, it was a game with light in the first and plenty of shadows in the second.
As announced by Hansi Flick, the Germans started in a clear 4-4-2 system with the duo of Füllkrug and Timo Werner. In the build-up game, the two full-backs David Raum and Marius Wolf moved far forward, Emre Can dropped back from the six-man position and then formed a three-man formation in the last line with Matthias Ginter and Nico Schlotterbeck.
DFB team wants to finish faster
Immediately recognizable was the effort to act in a straightforward, targeted, less wait-and-see manner than in the World Cup disaster. With the many direct passes, mistakes naturally crept in again and again, but when the ball ran, it went pleasingly quickly towards the goal.
A corner kick almost gave the lead in the 11th minute, but guest keeper Pedro Gallese just scratched Füllkrug’s header off the line. Seconds later, Gallese was beaten: Nico Schlotterbeck had overturned the opposing defense with an ingenious long pass from the defense, Kai Havertz landed the ball at Füllkrug, who scored to make it 1-0.
power football instead Management mode from the DFB team
With this, Füllkrug not only reminded the national coach that he should have been given a lot more playing time in the preliminary round in Qatar – but also initiated the next test phase of the restart: After a tour, Flick did not want to see an administration mode, but continued to see power football. His protégés initially implemented this as well.
Only the nonchalance of Florian Wirtz prevented the actually certain 2:0 in the 20th minute. Ten minutes later, Timo Werner hastily missed the next big chance. Luckily for Flick there was Füllkrug, who launched into free space in the 33rd minute and converted Marius Wolf’s perfect pass into the second German goal. It almost turned into a hat-trick, but just before the break Luis Advíncula cleared Füllkrug’s shot just before the goal line.
Gnabry hits the crossbar, Havertz hits the post
At the break, Flick brought on three new players, probably with a view to the next game on Tuesday against Belgium (March 28, 2023/8:45 p.m., live ticker at sportschau.de). Serge Ganbry almost registered with a dream goal: his spectacular side kick after Joshua Kimmich’s chip pass crashed into the bar (60th).
The aluminum was also a friend of the Peruvians in the 68th minute: After a four-minute VAR delay, referee Maria Caputi managed to take a penalty after a foul on Schlotterbeck, but Kai Havertz pushed the ball against the right post. Since he obviously hasn’t internalized all the rules of his professional activity, he then threw the extra shot into the goal himself – so Caputi had to continue the game with a free kick for Peru.
Momentum out – debutants in
All in all, the momentum was largely gone in the second half, the German game became more and more fragmented by the minute. It was still a special evening for Kevin Schade and Mergim Berisha: they made their international debut in the final quarter of an hour.
“It wasn’t about strengthening my position, it was about getting off to a good start and taking the fans with me”, said the filling jug on ZDF. Füllkrug also praised the interaction in the new dual leadership, which Flick had summoned from the start for the first time. “In the system with two strikers, I get my situations in the penalty area. It’s great that I’m already so involved here.”
Flick satisfied with the defensive
Flick analyzed: “A lot of things were good, I’m very happy with the defense, which is zero. Niclas is responsible for goals and he implemented that very well today, even if we still lost the ball too much overall and should have played out situations better.”
Captain Kimmich said: “It was good for us to have occupied the box today. If the strikers also score, it’s all the better. In the second half, however, we should have held the ball better and let the opponent run more.”