Beating Slovakia 6-0, the German team has a chance to advance

Written by/Hanbing Before the final round of the European group stage of the World Cup preliminaries, among the seven traditional European teams, except for Italy, which is basically determined to only participate in the play-offs, the German team is the team with the greatest risk of qualifying. Nagelsmann and his German team have been strongly questioned: the conversion rate of crosses to goals, the ability to seize scoring opportunities and the goals scored by substitute players are still dismal. In the last round of the group stage, the German team actually had the same points as Slovakia. Considering the 0-2 away defeat, the German team may even "fall" into the play-offs with Italy.

"Bild" believed before the game that this campaign was more important to the 38-year-old Nagelsmann than the quarter-finals against Spain in last year's European Cup. If the team loses and enters the play-offs, it will almost be his last game. Fortunately, Nagelsmann's speech at halftime against Luxembourg in the last round worked: "If we go all out, they won't be able to cope, and we will succeed together." Kimmich, Schlotterbeck and Anton entered the starting lineup, and the German team finally allowed fans to see what a strong team looks like: active pressing, tough confrontation and creative cooperation.

Klopp, who is already the global sports director of the Red Bull Group, was present in person. In this key qualifying match, Nagelsmann, who had coached RB Leipzig, finally proved himself with a 6-0 victory at his old home court. Many of the previous problems of the German team were solved: big center Walter Mader continued to score goals, assisted Wirtz who scored twice, and found the feeling. Sane had 2 shots and 1 pass. Five of the six goals came from the striker, and the offensive end completely unleashed its power. The German team, which had conceded goals in 7 consecutive games and lost 3 games in a row, quietly completed 4 consecutive games without sealing opponents, and its defense has been comprehensively improved.

Before the game against Slovakia, the biggest problem of the German team was the poor offensive power of the front line. The first 7 of the 10 goals came from the midfield and backfield. It wasn't until the 1-0 victory over Northern Ireland that center Walter Mader began to find his feeling. Although he scored twice against Luxembourg in the last round, it only increased the proportion of the German team's forward goals to 30%.

In addition, the German team's cross-goal conversion rate is extremely low. In the last round away game against Luxembourg, 0 of the 18 crosses were successful. Since the Nagelsmann era, only 4 of the 291 crosses have been converted into goals, with an average of 72 crosses required to produce one goal. Scoring opportunities were also wasted too much. In the previous preliminaries, only 5 of the 12 obvious opportunities were taken (41.6%), while the conversion rate in the Bundesliga was as high as 54%. In the 2024 European Cup, the German team scored 4 goals as a substitute in 5 games, ranking first in this statistic. But in the UEFA Nations League and World Cup preliminaries, substitute players only scored 4 of 32 goals.

In this campaign, Nagelsmann ranked 4231, and Gnabry was pushed to the 10th position, supporting the forward line with Sane and Wirtz on the wings. The German team's offensive end finally broke out. Walter Mader scored with a header from Kimmich's cross in the 18th minute. He has scored 4 goals in the last 3 national team games, scoring all 3 goals in consecutive victories over Northern Ireland and Luxembourg, and has become a reliable center forward. The efficiency of active counter-attacks and long passes increased, allowing the German team to take a 4-goal lead in the first 40 minutes. Gnabry and Sane scored successively. In the 41st minute, it was Walter Mader who successfully stole the ball in the frontcourt and handed it to Wirtz to assist Sane who scored twice.

In the first round in September, Slovakia, which gave the German team three consecutive losses in all competitions, had their hopes of qualifying directly shattered in just 40 minutes. Counting 19-year-old Wade Haogu's goal as a substitute, five of the German team's six goals in this campaign came from the striker. Of the total 16 goals in the World Cup preliminaries, the number of striker goals soared to 8, accounting for 50%. In this campaign, 6 out of 10 shots on target were scored, with a conversion rate of 60%. There were also goals scored from crosses and long passes, and the three-dimensional attack power was finally reflected.

In the 77th minute of the second half, Wade Haogu, who played for RB Leipzig, came on as a substitute for Wirtz, and together with the Democratic Congolese right-back Baku, who also came on the bench, ignited the enthusiasm of the Leipzig stadium. Two substitute players scored goals one after another, solving the problem of the small number of goals scored by the German team's substitute players. Especially the 19-year-old and 192-day-old Wade Haogu, who scored his first goal for the national team in just 102 seconds of his debut. He is the youngest player in the history of the German team to score the first goal on his debut since Stimmel (19 years and 68 days) in 1954.

After qualifying with his desired victory, Nagelsmann can finally begin to truly prepare for the World Cup. The center crisis has a solution in Walter Mader who is good enough for now and can provide healthy competition with Phil Krueger and Klein Dienst in the future. After Musiala returns on the offensive end, the lineup selection is more secure. In March next year, the German team arranges a warm-up match with Cote d'Ivoire, and Nagelsmann also hopes to find a stronger opponent to inspect the players.