A suffering shared is a suffering halved – the German football team is also looking for form. Philipp Kurashev is playing better than ever in the NHL – that’s why

It was – let’s say oppressive – the Swiss national team’s qualifying campaign for the 2024 European Championship. In one of the nominally weakest groups, Murat Yakin’s team achieved only four victories. It didn’t take delusions of grandeur to hope, at least in the run-up to the campaign, that winning the group would be easy for Switzerland. After yesterday’s defeat it is clear: Switzerland finished the qualification in second place and can do little to counter the criticism of the team and the coach.

After a sobering evening in Bucharest, a look across the Rhine should bring some relief to many tormented Swiss football souls, because: we are not alone in the misery of our national team. Things are also going wrong in Germany with the house blessing in the national team. Our big football neighbor has already qualified as host for the 2024 European Championship. However, the team’s performance has given little reason for euphoria regarding the home tournament for a long time; With yesterday’s defeat against Austria, the fire is now in the roof of the DFB.

“Red alert”

“Germany is so screwed,” sang the Austrian fans at the Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna after their team, who qualified for the European Championship as one of the group’s best runners-up, defeated the Germans 2-0. and plunged even further into misery. “Red alarm for the DFB team. “It is a downright disturbing performance by the German team,” summarized the “Frankfurter Allgemeine”. “No! No! Nagelsmann! That will not happen at the European Championships! The pressure will be really great, no, it will be enormous,” warns “Bild”.

A scene in the 49th minute was emblematic of the state of the German team, which according to Nagelsmann is not only under pressure to achieve results, but also under “pressure to behave”: after a spiteful duel between Leroy Sané and the Austrian Phillipp Mwene, the first completely lost his cool and roughly threw Mwene to the ground. The German received a red card for his action. In his post-match apology, Sane admitted that it was not the opponent but dissatisfaction with his own performance that was the reason for his panic.

In terms of tournament success, Germany has not been among the best in the world for years. Nine years ago, the Germans crowned themselves world champions in Brazil with a 1-0 win over Argentina and inflicted one of the bitterest defeats in history with a 7-1 defeat on the proud Seleção. Since this triumph, things have gone steadily downhill – an overview.

The latest performances of the German national team made it clear that there is no improvement in sight for the time being. For a long time, the defense was one of the Germans’ building sites; in the 2-0 defeat against Austria, many unnecessary losses of the ball and an innocent attack did the rest.

Everything should have been better with new coach Julian Nagelsmann on the sidelines. Unlike the Swiss Football Association, the DFB has already tried to shake up the team with a coaching change.

But after four games under Nagelsmann, the result is sobering: a win against the USA, a draw against Mexico and two defeats against Turkey and Austria. Of course, the matches were ‘just’ test matches, but victories would still have been good for the troubled German team. And Nagelsmann stood out for his unsportsmanlike behavior against Austria. While Sané was sent off the field, the national coach signaled to goalkeeper Kevin Trapp, who was already ready for the goal kick, that he had to feign an injury. This gave Nagelsmann some extra time to give his players further instructions.

After three different coaches in just over two years (Flick took over from Löw, Nagelsmann from Flick) tried in vain to revive the German team’s spirit of playing, today it is mainly the players who are featured in the media be criticized.

There is still a while to go before the European Championships

As for the European Championship, which also thrives on the euphoria of the host fans, it would obviously be desirable if not only the Swiss national team, but also the German national team could find a way out of the malaise. For Switzerland – it can also be said – it is the sixth final round participation in a row and Germany also has the opportunity to show a better side at the European Championships at home through automatic qualification.

With Germany placed as hosts in draw pot 1, Austria ending up in the second pot after a successful campaign and Switzerland finding themselves in the fourth and final draw pot after missing out on a win against Romania, a DACH group would also be possible on the European Championships. If you just look at the last matches, Austria would be the favorite for once.