DFB team: Why the 3: 3 against Italy is delighted and at the same time irritated

Dortmund and the German national team is a special relationship. Always drama, always pilgrimage, the great feelings of life compresses in the 90 minutes of a football game.

2006, the sewing at the end of the summer fairy tale, 0-2 in the World Cup semi-final against Italy, in the last two minutes of extension. 2023, the first game after dark era Hansi Flick. With his hands in the pockets, Rudi Völler coaches the team to a 2-1 against France. For the first time, hope gives up that the 2024 European Championship does not have to end in a debacle.

2024, EM round of density against Denmark. 2: 0 won, but how? Doubtful referee decisions, the tip of a Danish’s foot is said to have been half a millimeter in the offside when the guests were canceled later. A scene that sparked debates that are led far beyond the end of the tournament.

And there will also be a long time to talk about the game on Sunday evening. Because such a schizophrenic, such an eerily beautiful game has not offered the German national team for decades.

The first half of the Nations League quarter-finals was a intoxication. 3: 0 after 45 minutes. And that against Italy, European champion in 2021, a class team. But Italy was no longer a quote of his own, two half dangerous counterattack in the first three quarters of an hour, the barren balance was. “We pressed it onto the wall,” said DFB defender Nico Schlotterbeck, and that was still formulated cautiously.

Rarely has a German team have seen playing so powerfully, as clever and passionate at the same time. During the half-time break, the big reference values ​​from the DFB international history were used to measure the appearance on Sunday: From 7-1 against Brazil at the 2014 World Cup, there was soon talk, and everyone was clear: History is written again today.

That’s how it came. Just that Italy, this anemic team, which had just collected a slapstick goal, because half the defense was scratched in the head, while Joshua Kimmich hit a corner on Jamal Musiala-this Italy wrote down in the story.

Two straightforward gates through Moise Kean, a master of efficiency again, a penalty by Giacomo Raspadori in added time, and Dortmund was in shock. As in 2006, when the party -loving stadium, which was overcrowded with Ruhrpottpathos, suddenly fell silent. Pirlo on Grosso: 1-0. Gilardino on Del Pierro: 2-0. Everything within two minutes. Sudden Death. Would it come again?

Anyone who listened to the German players after the final whistle said to hear the survivors of a car accident. It’s happy that the sheet metal is only dented – but also brooding how it could happen. Everything went so quickly. Hmm, what had happened?

Nobody had a conclusive explanation on Sunday night, but everyone agreed that such a crash should not be repeated. “We still have to learn a lot,” said captain Joshua Kimmich; Nico Schlotterbeck (“must be more present next time”) and Antonio Rüdiger (“just have to go down well to the end”) were humble.

The only one who was in a really good mood was Julian Nagelsmann. It was a great evening, said the national coach that he could draw three teachings from it. First: “We are able to catch up” (Nagelsmann meant 0: 1 from the quarter-final first leg, which the Germans won 2-1). Second, “We can play outstanding football.” Third: “We learn from the game how we can become more stable.” The bottom line: “Absolute world class.”

Nagelsmann had thus torn the sovereignty of interpretation. He recorded the 3: 3 as a kind of victory.

And yet this evening gave reason to doubt.

Nagelsmann has emotionalized the national team like no national coach in front of him. Since the victories against France and the Netherlands in March 2024, the team has been filled with a feeling of invulnerability. This feeling carried it through the home European Championship to the quarter-finals against Spain.

The 1-2 defeat against the later European champion was quickly wounded, which is also thanks to Nagelsmann’s rhetorical skills. In the subsequent Nations League games, the team again offered strong performances; Bosnia-Herzegovina even beat 7-0.

But as easy as she can flare up by her trainer, she also becomes as shaky and shaky when her rhythm is disturbed by a robust opponent-this has shown the Italy game. The national team has not yet been so mature, as confidently, as it had in the first half. Fired by an audience like in Dortmund, she can get intoxicated with herself and reach heights that she would have thought unattainable. What she lacks is a operating mode that does not require endorphin. Routines that work, no matter how your own condition is.

The team will soon need that resilience. Due to the finished quarter-final comparison against Italy, the DFB may align the final round of the Nations League in early June. In the semifinals it goes against Portugal, in a possible final against Spain or France.

Unfortunately, the games do not take place in Dortmund, but in Stuttgart and Munich. The national team has fewer good memories, especially at Stuttgart. The stadium in the Bad Cannstatt district was the setting for the lost EM quarter-finals. The reason enough for the team to write a new story. This time with a happy ending.