Ffirst the insects. There has been a mosquito infestation at Germany’s Herzogenaurach training camp in Bavaria, which has claimed many lives, with around a fortnight of wet weather making the team’s outdoor garden, located just next door, a forest, almost unusable in the evening. “I have already been bitten two or three times,” admitted striker Maximilian Beier. “But if that’s the biggest problem, then fine…”
Then the thunder rumbles. The DWD, Germany’s equivalent of the Met Office, warns of severe thunderstorms, torrential rain, large hailstones, hurricane-force winds and possibly tornadoes in the west of the country on Saturday: perfectly timed to coincide with the decisive last-16 clash against Denmark in Dortmund.
If the German campaign for Euro 2024 begins to take on the appearance of a biblical ordeal, rest assured: many potential scourges are still to come. The 1-1 draw against Switzerland in the final group game, saved only by an injury-time equalizer from Niclas Füllkrug, helped put an end to the illusion that it was all going to be easy.
And Germany’s struggles in Frankfurt on Sunday night certainly seem to have focused minds, perhaps even reawakened some old spirits. “We need to improve the rest of our defense,” Lothar Matthäus wrote in his column. “I always said I would be satisfied with the quarter-finals,” said former national team midfielder Mario Basler. “If we are attacked one-on-one, we are in trouble,” warned former ZDF German player Christoph Kramer.
Outside of the commentators, the main bone of contention seems to be Füllkrug, the star striker of the German national team, who plays for Dortmund and now boasts an enviable record of a goal every 58 minutes for international duty. Füllkrug’s record in international tournaments – four goals in six games, despite never playing more than 35 minutes in any of them – has generated a groundswell of public support for the idea that he should probably start.
The problem is that there is no place available for him right away. Kai Havertz, the starting centre-forward, has started the tournament well and his versatility and mobility are crucial to the way Germany want to attack. According to an article in the Bild newspaper, it is rather the offensive playmaker Florian Wirtz who could make his place, Füllkrug playing up front during the last training sessions and Havertz and Jamal Musiala playing right next to him.
We can therefore summarize this match as the story of two attackers: an in-form attacker that Germany fails to select and an attacker in poor form that Denmark fails to keep out. Kasper Hjulmand, his coach, has many options if he decides to leave out Rasmus Højlund on Saturday night: the strong Jonas Wind, the elegant Kasper Dolberg, the astute Yussuf Poulsen. And yet, for better or worse, there is a sense that the fates of Højlund and Hjulmand are linked: a formula whose potential is spectacular, and yet remains, so far, almost entirely potential.
The Manchester United forward was prolific for Denmark in qualifying, scoring seven goals in eight games, but has not scored in seven matches. During a winless group stage, his confidence has at times seemed to be visibly draining. He sits 91st in the league’s most shots, behind Fabian Schär, N’Golo Kanté and Ayoze Pérez, who has played just 12 minutes in the tournament.
“We didn’t know how to serve Rasmus better,” Hjulmand said after the 0-0 draw against Serbia. “When we play the way we do, our full-backs must be able to put pressure. We had four or five situations where we were able to hit a flat ball behind or in front of the defense. It is the combinations in the center, as well as the breakthroughs on the wings, that are missing. Rasmus is where he belongs. »
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The knives are being sharpened for Hjulmand after a discouraging and inconsistent group stage that – according to Danish tabloid BT – was “less exciting than the general assembly of the local branch association”. His contract runs until 2026, and another tournament failure after the group stage exit in Qatar would make the case for change irresistible. His future therefore rests on his ability to listen to this front line, which the same article describes as “more harmless than a meal of unsalted potatoes”.
Despite all this, there is a feeling that opportunity and opposition will lift them up. This is a Danish team that worships at the altar of German football, made up of 13 players with Bundesliga experience and a coach who is fluent in the language from his days coaching Mainz a decade ago. On the other hand, German coach Mads Buttgereit is a Dane, poached by Hansi Flick after studying his work at Euro 2020.
Therein lies the danger for Germany: an opponent it is sure to beat, but which feels happy to find itself in a situation where it has no chance of winning, which it has left behind side and to whom it left large spaces to defend itself. Some Germans of a certain age break out in a cold sweat at the memory of the 1992 European Championship final, when Berti Vogts’ team were surprised 2-0 in Gothenburg.
Ferries and trains have been crossing the border for days. Dortmund is preparing to suffer a deluge, and in more ways than one. Win it and Germany will have six more days to nurse their bruises and insect bites before a likely quarter-final against Spain in Stuttgart. It doesn’t get any easier from here. A storm is brewing, but somehow the promised land has never felt closer.
