Cucurella returns to the handball location-“You will whistle again”

Time heals all wounds, it is said. But the 106th minute of the game in the quarter-finals of the EM 2024 was probably burned into the collective memory of German football fans forever. When Niclas Füllkrug put on Jamal Musiala and pulled it off, the 2-1 lead for the DFB team was within reach for a moment-if it hadn’t been to this Marc Cucurella, more precisely his hand.

The Spaniard blocked Musialas shot with his left arm. An outcry went through the Stuttgart Mhparena. Germany demanded a penalty, but did not get it. The VAR does not take it in either. After that, the DFB team no longer found their way; In the 119th minute, Mikel Merino ended the title dreams of the Nagelsmann team in his own country with his goal.

In the semi -finals between Spain and France, German fans of Cucurella then whistled – the frustration over his handball was still deep. Since then, the Spaniard has not set foot in a stadium in this country. That changes now. The 26-year-old traveled to Germany with the Spanish national soccer team for the final four of the UEFA Nations League. Again the semi -final opponent is called France – and that in Stuttgart, of all people, where the controversial scene had occurred last year.

Since then, the discussion about the handball has been regularly fueled by new statements and findings – partly by Cucurella itself. “I got my pants,” he said in October about the controversial scene, and in December admitted: “If it had been against us, I would also have protested and said it would have been a penalty.” Previously, it had become known that the UEFA considered the refused whistle as a mistake.

So now there is a return of the Spaniards around Marc Cucurella to Germany-and, depending on the further course of the tournament, maybe a direct reunion with the DFB team. The Nagelsmann team had to give up the Portuguese 1-2 in the first semi-final. If the Spaniards lose in the second semi -finals against France, both nations meet in the game for third place.

For Cucurella, the return due to its history with the DFB team could become more uncomfortable than for its teammates. The defender was still calm before leaving to Germany, at least to the outside world. “You will whistle again, I’m prepared for it,” he said at a press conference in Las Rozas near Madrid, where the Spaniards prepared for the Nations League. Cucurella does not have a guilty conscience. “I didn’t do anything bad.”

If the focus on him takes pressure from the comrades, it even has something good, says Cucurella. Despite the continuing frustration with his handball, his memories of the European Championship 2024 are “all nice, because we won the title”.

Sources: “”, News agency dpa