The DFB eleven certainly did not have an opponent at eye level to clear out of the way with Estonia. More than the joy about the third victory in the third European Championship qualifying game prevailed after the 8:0 (5:0) against the World Rankings-96. Hence the feeling of we, which players and spectators had conveyed for the first time since the disgrace of Russia.
Even in the biggest high-flyer of this festive evening in Mainz, there was enough sense of reality to gently land on the ground again. “Such opponents,” said Marco Reus after the eight-goal festival against Estonia, smiling, “are certainly not the yardstick for us.”
The hopelessly overburdened guests, which had already been apparent during the final training on the previous day, moved rather on the level of an ambitious regional league team than a team playing for the qualification for the European Championship.
And yet the Dortmund double packer and his colleagues, who were anything but ready for holidays, had every reason to leave the Mainz stadium with a feeling of satisfaction. Satisfaction, because for a long time they had once again designed the Wie des Triumphes according to their ideas. To the delight of the fans.
“We wanted to score many goals, that was extremely important for our self-confidence. We are still in development,” Reus emphasized. The highest victory since the 8-0 win over San Marino in November 2016 was a “very good rhythm”, “even after the half”, as the 30-year-old said.
The break had already been 5-0 for Reus, who was the celebrated man of interim coach Marcus Sorg’s team with an artistic free-kick in the 37th minute.
However, the 26,050 spectators not only donated standing ovations to the offensive man after his substitution in the 66th minute. When the game was whistled off, they all got up, clapped cheerfully and started singing “Oh, how beautiful that is”. A song that had not been heard at German international matches since the World Cup last year at the very latest.
“It couldn’t have gone much better,” Sorg realized afterwards. The 53-year-old, who had represented the head coach Joachim Löw, who had been unable to play due to a sports accident, quite appropriately with a record of two wins and a goal ratio of 10:0, emphasized above all the “enthusiasm” with which his team infected the fans.
“It was real fun. We have shown a certain joy of playing and passion. The fans noticed that and supported us super,” said Joshua Kimmich.
His midfield partner Ilkay Gündogan, who introduced Serge Gnabry’s early lead with one of his many feared sharp passes and later added a penalty goal, was explicitly delighted by the warm applause at his substitution in the 53rd minute: “It’s just good and shows that you played well and that it’s fun again – not only for us on the pitch, but also for the spectators on the stands.
Perhaps Mainz, this sympathetic carnival stronghold on the border of the Rhineland, was just the right place for this last international match of the German eleven before the summer break. The atmosphere in the old town was already good in the afternoon, when a group of street musicians in the Yeti-look played drums and trumpets to create a great atmosphere. And she kept getting better at the stadium.
Unlike the previous home appearance in Wolfsburg, not every scream or ball contact could be heard in the stands. A fact which, after many, not unjustified accusations of alienation, the association was able to record as an image success, as a step back to unity. National Team Director Oliver Bierhoff, who sat right next to the press grandstand, applauded every goal and stood up there minutes after the final whistle to soak up the pleasant atmosphere.
But he didn’t want to overestimate this 8:0 purely athletically. Bierhoff didn’t even appear in the Mixed Zone to give his assessment of the game. After all, it was only Estonia.
The next qualifying match on September 6 against the Netherlands in Hamburg will be a different house number. Leon Goretzka, one of the six goal scorers on Tuesday, therefore confirmed: “The upheaval is far from over. There are other opponents approaching us, everything must be 100 percent right. And we’re far from there.”
