It was a humbler and wiser Germany that stepped from the turf here at full-time: euphoric after Niclas Füllkrug’s injury-time header, relieved at topping the group, but with perhaps a more realistic idea of where they are and what to expect from them. Like one of its mercurial intercity trains, Germany’s Euro 2024 journey stuttered and slowed here, even threatening an unscheduled diversion, but ultimately remaining raggedly on course.
And so in a way this was a kind of hazing: a stress test under laboratory conditions, with qualification already secure but a number of flaws that required the scrutiny of a strong Swiss side to expose. How would this team – which until recently was actually very bad – deal with its first big setback, its first indifferent crowd? How would that defence hold up against a team unafraid to run at them? And what happens if you really, really need a goal in the 91st minute?
