No jokes, we are Germans. Dortmund of the yellow wall does not betray the Germans despite hail and lightning hitting them for 25 minutes, complete with a stoppage that transformed Germany-Denmark into a match in three halves.
Two goals with the signatures of the goal-scorer Havertz (a penalty helped him) and with the usual touch of magic (3 goals) by Musiala, perhaps in a dark evening but ready to leave his mark when fate and his teammates serve the right ball. Now Germany awaits the winner of Spain-Georgia. Denmark didn’t make it, far away from the tripping up of a European Championship that was (1992) and also the beautiful face of the last European Championship. Germany overall stronger with a touch of luck at the right time, Denmark with wet powder in attack.
In the first 12 minutes, the Germans had six shots on goal with mixed results: a goal disallowed by VAR, balls kicked out and the sometimes adventurous saves by Schmeichel prevented Denmark from going down. The Germans were impenetrable in Rudiger’s interventions and aggressive in midfield with the stars (Kroos, Gundogan) who didn’t sit back and watch: Musiala was perhaps a little sluggish, the others were reactive especially with Sane deployed in place of Wirtz, Musiala’s twin. Denmark were crushed for at least twenty minutes, then something was seen: Maehle was enterprising, Eriksen was elegant and ready to take the first decent shot by the Danes against Neuer, who may be old like Schmeichel (38 years old for the German, 37 for the Dane) but held his own. However, just when the game seemed to be re-balancing, thunder, lightning, and hail worthy of golf balls arrived. The referee ready to interrupt the match, the crowd to endure the shower not entirely unexpected by the meteorologists. Twenty-five minutes of waiting, and then the return to play the last ten minutes of the first half. But that was enough to see Havertz, still starting in place of Fullkrug, miss yet another goal thanks to Schmeichel’s instinct and Hojlund testing Neuer’s reflexes as he comes out. Two missed goals, or two goals saved by the goalkeepers: points of view.
But right at the start of the second half, goals scored and disallowed, and VAR as protagonist, directed the match: first Andersen, a former Sampdoria player, saw a goal disallowed, in a melee, for offside and in the next action, his own intervention, casual, with his hand, gave Germany a penalty, scored by a Havertz finally surgical in the shot on goal. Also, later, he missed two more. Then Musiala thought to put the seal on it and VAR to disallow a goal by Wirtz.
