The German national team has won its third match in the European Championship qualification. The DFB side celebrated an 8-0 (5-0) victory over Estonia.
Tricks, dream passes, great goals: Ten-day national coach Marcus Sorg and the German national team Joachim Löw’s six-point plan were implemented perfectly with heavenly superiority. The DFB eleven celebrated their highest victory in three years against the hopelessly overstretched Estonia in Mainz with 8:0 (5:0) and remains on their way to the European Championship 2020 without a flaw. Now it says: Off on vacation.
Almost a year after the World Cup disaster, Löw was certainly taken in front of the television in Freiburg as he had been against Belarus (2:0). Marco Reus (10./37.), Serge Gnabry (17./62.), Leon Goretzka (20.), Ilkay Gündogan (26., Foulelfmeter), Timo Werner (79.) and Leroy Sane (88.) turned the third victory in the third qualifying game into a shooting match, in the sold-out stadium the La Ola circled after only half an hour. The Estonians, number 96 in the world rankings, had little more to offer than bodiless defence.
Before the classic against the Netherlands on 6 September and the duel with the strong Northern Irish three days later, Löw will take over again “with full power”, as national team director Oliver Bierhoff assured. An arterial contusion as a result of an accident on the weight bench had put the 59-year-old out of action for the first time in 13 years as national coach.
After two phone calls with Löw on match day, Sorg revealed a changed, more offensive line-up. Thilo Kehrer played for Lukas Klostermann on the right side of a four-man defensive chain, creative Leon Goretzka joined the team for central defender Jonathan Tah. Estonia formed up in a chain of five and four on and in their own penalty area. The pitiful striker Sergei Zenjov from Kazakhstan’s Schachtjor Qaraghandy waited on the midline alone for long passes.
Kehrer and Nico Schulz on the left were almost wing strikers, so the German team pushed the opponent into the defensive. Sane and Reus, scorers against Belarus on Saturday, moved further inwards. That paid off when Reus scored to 1-0 after a direct pass from Kehrer.
Goalkeeper Sergei Lepmets reflexed to prevent Goretzka (13) from scoring 2-0 and Gnabry scored four minutes later. Estonia was a match ball, after only a quarter of an hour it was all about the level of victory. Sorg, who “wanted to inspire the fans again”, smiled contentedly when Goretzka also met. For the Estonians, the worst was to be feared. Reus only hit the crossbar (30th), but he just scored a free-kick into the goal.
The DFB organises five times as many people as Estonia has inhabitants (1.32 million). The guests also lacked the former Augsburg player Ragnar Klavan, the only player of international standard. When captain Konstantin Vasiljev took a free-kick to the goal, applause broke out (45th).
It was Germany’s highest half-time lead since the 2014 World Cup semi-final against Brazil (7-1). There have never been 14 wins in series in qualifiers (European Championship and World Cup) before, an 8:0 last against San Marino in November 2016.
After the break the German team released their iron grip. Marcel Halstenberg (for Schulz) and Julian Draxler (for Gündogan) came into the game, Estonia had some ball tables, Zenjov tested Manuel Neuer (55th). On the other side Sane fought to be among the scorers (57.), Werner came for the wildly acclaimed Reus and also scored. “Oh, how nice it is,” sang the 26,050 crowd.
Only with a goal for Sane it wouldn’t work out for a long time. The assistant referee decided after a world-class goal of the England Legionnaire, who was courted by Bayern Munich, on offside – and was wrong (67.). Shortly before the final whistle Sane met regularly: finally.
Marcus Sorg is now back in the second row according to plan, and the national players are off on their longed-for summer holiday. But not for Tah and Klostermann: They’ll be playing the U21 European Championships in Italy and San Marino from 17 June.
