CALL NEIN NEIN NEIN
Hopes of Euro 24 opener shock look doomed as veteran puts Germany back in Kroos control
SCOTLAND be afraid... be very afraid. The Germans are back and desperate to make up for years of hurt starting with the Euro 2024 opener against Steve Clarke’s men.
Julian Nagelsmann’s side had been written off after a torrid recent run of results and the Tartan Army had started to dream about Scotland opening the European Championships in style with a win in the German’s own backyard for that June 14 showdown in Munich.
But the brutal reality is that if Germany play like they did in Lyon when they completely blew away the 2022 World Cup runners-up and could easily have doubled their eventual two-goal win, there’s only going to be one winner at the Allianz Arena – and it will be Die
Mannschaft fans who are celebrating.
This was like watching the Germany of old. Brimming with attacking confidence, strong, defensively well-organised, fast on the counter and tactically perfect.
And the glue that held it all together was Toni Kroos.
Returning after three years in the international wilderness, the Real Madrid veteran showed his nation what they had been missing straight from kick off.
Kroos provided the assist for Florian Wirtz to score after just seven seconds – Germany’s fastest-ever goal in their history.
It was as if that goal dusted off the cobwebs and blew their confidence doubts away instantly. This was a team that had won just three out of 11 games last year and lost to Turkey and Austria in their last outings in November.
Yet here they were completely outplaying Kylian Mbappe and co. and handing one of the favourites for the Euros a real lesson in possession football and discipline.
And don’t forget France rattled four goals past Scotland when they met in a friendly in October too.
While the French pushed bodies up in search of parity, Germany picked them off again and again and Arsenal
star Kai Havertz doubled the lead just after the break.
It could and should have been more and to watch Kroos encourage and cajole his teammates and exude calmness was something John McGinn, Scott McTominay, Billy Gilmour and the rest of the Scotland midfielders should study.
It was a masterclass and even the French fans applauded the 34-year-old when he was handed a wellearn rest in the second half.
Kroos was typically modest about his own display. He said: “We have to be very satisfied after that. I think that we have made a good step forward, an important step forward.
“The Eu rosa re fast approaching and I think we needed a result like this. Look, a lot of things have changed since I last played international football. I think it was a bit of a question of whether these changes that we made could work so quickly.
“We had a really good week of training, but we’ve often heard that the week of training before the game was good and then it didn’t work out so well.
“But we were able to take that into the game really well.
“The goal straight from kick off was planned and something we had worked on in training.
“We had a young team, but you look at guys like Maxi Middelstedt, who made his debut at a place like this and was excellent. We have to be delighted with this.”
Germany had so many star performers on the pitch, with Bayern Munich’s Jamal Musiala the stand-out along with Kroos, but there were no failures.
Havertz scored his 15th international goal and the Gunners ace is a man enjoying his football for both club and country.
He said: “Yes, that was a lot of fun.
“I think we controlled the game well, especially in the second half. We had one or two good chances to score and are of course happy to win against such a strong opponent.
“We don’t have long until the opening game against Scotland, so I think it was extremely important that every player knows his role in the team. “I enjoyed being in this team. We were comfortable on the ball. Nobody hid. Everyone wanted the ball. I think that made it extremely easy for us to get in behind the French, “And of course, it’s nice to score too. I’m just happy to be able to play football with the boys. “We have so much quality. When you see what’s behind me, it’s amazing.” And Kroos’ holding midfield partner Robert Andrich believes they now have an understanding after the Bayer Leverkusen starlet won just his second Germany cap. He said: “I still have to work on developing a complete understanding of playing next to someone as good as Toni Kroos. “But I am getting there and you have to say that was pretty good there.”