Some footballing stereotypes just will not fade away. Germany may no longer be the mirthless, methodical winning machine who would slowly maul their opponents until they inevitably engineered victory, but, evidently, they still know how to fashion match-winners from final moments.
Consequently, the Germans will play in the World Cup knockout stages for the first time in 12 years after another victory at the death. Côte d’Ivoire had gone ahead in a lively encounter on Saturday through Franck Kessié’s 30th-minute goal for Les Éléphants. But it was cancelled out by Deniz Undav’s 68th-minute equaliser and 94th-minute winner for Die Mannschaft.
The victory put the four-time world champions on six points, although the youngest team at this tournament gave the Germans a far tougher test than Curaçao had six days ago in a 7-1 crunching. “We deservedly won it,” said Germany’s manager, Julian Nagelsmann. “The boys invested a lot.”
Before 2018, Germany had never been eliminated in a World Cup group stage. No other nation has reached as many semi-finals, with 13 – only Brazil are close at 11. And yet, they went home after the first round in Russia and again four years later, in Qatar.
An edition expanded to 48 teams, with 32 going through to the knockout stages, never seemed likely to trip them up for a third time running. But then there were also plenty of concerns around this non-vintage edition of a storied side.
Among the issues the Germans fretted about before travelling to the United States were the absence of an obvious choice for striker; the form of Jamal Musiala and Florian Wirtz; injuries to two other creative players in Serge Gnabry and Lennart Karl; a 40-year-old Manuel Neuer, who had to be coaxed back from almost two years of international retirement in order solve the goalkeeper problem; and Nagelsmann, who has never entirely convinced the critics as Germany manager, or indeed as the Bayern Munich head coach before that.
Then there was the concern that Germany have not produced the sort of world-class player who will take a game by the scruff of the neck and bend it to his nation’s will. Oh, and also: the German people just don’t seem terribly bothered about this team or this tournament.
Plainly, an entirely unchanged Germany team had quite enjoyed the sensation of putting seven past an opponent and very nearly got another one just 15 seconds in, when Kai Havertz had a pop that whizzed high. More would follow as Joshua Kimmich swung in a cross for Havertz, whose well-placed header was majestically saved by Yahia Fofana. Musiala, meanwhile, found a crack of space in the tightly packed Ivorian lines at the edge of the box but curled his effort wide.
But no, protested the Paraguayan referee Juan Gabriel Benítez, this was not the appropriate moment for hydration. That would come just a minute or so later when he whistled for the drinks break and the sellout-ish crowd showered the proceedings in well-deserved jeers. This was, after all, a farcical sight on a pleasant lakeside afternoon that was, if anything, a tad brisk – absolutely optimal soccer weather, in other words – screaming at any rate that no special accommodations need be made for player wellbeing.
Once more, the break tilted the momentum of the game. And in the 30th minute, Yan Diomande, the 19-year-old breakout Ivorian star, received the ball up the left. He had been involved frequently to that point, but little had come off. This time, he got himself clear of Kimmich and found Amad Diallo with his low cross. But the Manchester United man struggled to get the ball out of his feet and, when he finally did, saw his effort blocked by the lunging Nathaniel Brown. But Kessié was right there to sweep the rebound home.
If Germany and the estimated 12,000 fans who had joined them here had looked stunned after conceding, a second disallowed goal reanimated them. In the 39th minute, Musiala was found guilty of bundling over Odilon Kossounou before Havertz set off with the ball and beat Fofana. Côte d’Ivoire invited pressure, luring 10 Germans into their third and Neuer almost halfway up the field, and then scampered away on the break. The imprecision of those forays kept the Ivorians from putting the game away.
Nagelsmann finally found solutions through a triple substitution at the hour, which gave the Germans more thrust and bite. “I’m very happy for the whole team because every player who came into the match was important,” he said. “During the second half we were a lot more active and took more risks because we really wanted to win.”
The dam finally broke when one substitute, Nadiem Amiri, found another in the box in Undav, who volleyed home from close range. It was mostly one-way traffic from there on, as Emerse Faé’s men in their luminous orange no longer looked so fit or frightful in the press.
In a frantic, wide-open ending, Côte d’Ivoire very nearly made off with the points on a late breakaway, but Simon Adingra dawdled on the ball. At the other end, Brown and Amiri were denied by Fofana before Undav, fed by Nmecha, spun and fired home the winner.
“There’s some frustration after this defeat,” said Faé. “But with the frustration, there is also a lot of pride in my players and how we played against one of the big favourites for this tournament. I think this defeat will serve us well for the rest of this tournament.” Côte d’Ivoire face Curaçao on Thursday with the chance to advance past the groups for the first time in their history.
Germany, meanwhile, pride themselves on being a “Turniermannschaft”. A team that specialise in tournament football. It’s just as well, then, that they have reached the knockout stage of this event for the first time since winning it in 2014.
