DORTMUND, Germany — Julian Nagelsmann is enjoying his good fortune as Germany coach. This has taken him to the quarter-finals of Euro 2024, but sooner or later he will need more than just good luck to take the host country much further in the competition.
It took a ferocious storm – play was suspended for 22 minutes in the first half due to lightning and relentless rain in Dortmund – and two VAR decisions in Germany’s favour to knock Denmark out of a last-16 tie that Nagelsmann’s side eventually won 2-0 thanks to a Kai Havertz penalty and a Jamal Musiala solo goal. Had the Danes enjoyed Nagelsmann’s luck and one or both of the VAR decisions gone their way, Germany might have been thrown out of their own game and the recriminations would already be underway.
“We were favorites, that makes it difficult, and we had a lot of adversity to overcome,” Nagelsmann said after the game. “They did it and that makes me proud. Gamers are getting rid of their old memory cards and remembering how good they are.
“We told the team that there are still phases in which we are not working at 100%. We need to be more patient and wait for our good moments.”
Nagelsmann, a former RB Leipzig and Bayern Munich coach, is under contract as Germany coach until the end of the 2026 World Cup. By then, he could decide on his best team.
For this game, he made the shock decision to drop Florian Wirtz from the squad in favour of Leroy Sané and also resisted calls to hand Niclas Füllkrug, Germany's goalscoring super-sub, his first start of the tournament.
“Against Switzerland we didn't have enough attacking power and depth,” Nagelsmann told German television before the match when asked about Wirtz's demotion to the bench. “Leroy is a player who embodies both.” [Wirtz] He also always has good runs, but he wants to have the ball at his feet more and then create things with two touches.
“Leroy offers a lot of depth thanks to his speed. He can provide what we lacked against Switzerland. We are deciding between two world-class players, so the decision can only be good.”
Meanwhile, Füllkrug was unlikely to start as Nagelsmann usually opts for Havertz. This was another game in which the Arsenal striker missed several chances before and after scoring from the penalty spot.
Sané? He offered the pace Nagelsmann wanted, but tended to go down blind alleys and failed to make use of his natural attributes. “It was his first game in a long time, but he improved in the second half,” Nagelsmann said.
The final result, in which Havertz scored, will allow Nagelsmann to justify his selection, but the coach now faces some important decisions ahead of Friday's quarter-final against Spain or Georgia in Stuttgart.
Barring the biggest upset at a European Championship since Iceland knocked out England at Euro 2016, Spain are likely to get past Georgia to face the Germans, and that would be a tough test for Nagelsmann and his team. Germany can win that game, they can win the whole tournament, but Nagelsmann needs to find a way to get his team going and it's hard to imagine him doing that without Wirtz in the lineup.
Denmark were able to enjoy periods of dominance in midfield and Christian Eriksen was given time and space to find gaps in the German defence. Had he had better players around him, the Manchester United midfielder could have caused his team a lot of damage.
Spain has options that Denmark does not have, so they will take advantage of them if they end up facing Germany, but the Danes could have also won this match if not for the interruption of the storm and the interference of the VAR.
Joachim Andersen thought he had given Denmark the lead when he scored from a goalmouth scramble in the 48th minute, but the goal was ruled out by VAR after a fractional offside was detected. Thomas Delaney, the Danish midfielder, made the mistake of allowing the edge of his toe to go wide by millimetres, so was ruled offside.
Technically correct, yes, but no advantage was gained and it was a goal that would never have been questioned, let alone ruled out, without VAR. While Denmark rued the decision, Germany capitalised, and within two minutes they had to thank VAR again when referees Stuart Attwell and David Coote urged referee Michael Oliver to review a handball by Andersen following a cross from David Raum.
Once again, Denmark gained no advantage from the apparent infringement. It was Andersen’s fingernail that scuffed the ball, but it registered on the Snickometer that has been introduced to detect handballs. Andersen was deemed to have his arm in an unnatural position – look at it and you’ll wonder where he was expected to have it – and Oliver agreed with his colleagues in the VAR room and pointed to the penalty spot.
“The whole game we kept going until all of a sudden my pinky finger was offside and then I was touching it with my hand,” Delaney said. “In modern football, with VAR, everything goes very fast.”
Havertz, who had been wasting good chances until then, converted the penalty and from that moment on, Germany never looked back. Musiala added a second goal in the 68th minute to secure the match and the last 20 minutes were routine for the home side, who then began to loosen up their game to give a misleading impression of the match.
Sometimes teams and coaches get lucky. Denmark was unlucky, but Germany benefited from great decisions that went their way. That's why Nagelsmann's selection and his inability to settle on his best team became a debate that can be left for another day.
But make no mistake: that debate will come sooner or later.
