Cologne (Germany) (AFP)

Germany fell back into its shortcomings Wednesday in a friendly against Turkey, in Cologne in front of 300 spectators, conceding a 3-3 draw in added time after leading three times in the score, a scenario already experienced in September twice in League of Nations.

The Germans, who lined up a "B" team, scored by Julian Draxler (45 + 1), Florian Neuhaus (58th) and Lucas Waldschmidt (81st).

But they were joined each time by Ozan Tufan (50th), Efecan Karaca (67th) and by Kenan Karaman in added time (90th + 4).

The coach Joachim Löw had however raised the tone during the preparation of this match.

"We have to talk," he said, "we have too often let go of having led to the score, we are not paying for our work".

In September, the Mannschaft let slip two victories, against Spain (1-1) and Switzerland (1-1), after having each time led 1-0.

And against opportunist Turkey, it was in extra time that the Germans conceded a draw, exactly as against Spain a month earlier.

Certainly the stars of the team, Joshua Kimmich, Serge Gnabry, Leon Goretzka and other Toni Kroos will only enter the competition for the League of Nations, on Saturday against Ukraine in Kiev, then against Switzerland on Tuesday in Cologne.

But the manager had not taken this friendly game lightly at all, challenging his players to prove that they will have their place in the list of 23 for the next Euro this summer.

- Lack of rigor -

"These matches are made to see which players can come and strengthen our typical team in the near future," he said at the start of the week: "It's a chance: who shows up, and how? 'spirit? How are the instructions applied? ".

Even a player paid 80 million euros this summer by Chelsea, the great prospect Kai Havertz, was asked to prove himself against Turkey.

With the Kimmich-Kroos-Goretzka trios in the midfield and Sané-Werner-Gnabry in front, he has no assurance of being a starter in the German team in the short term, despite all his talent.

This "reserve" team therefore entered the game very seriously, with the desire to play and combine: a little slowness, due to a lack of automatisms, however, for a long time prevented the attackers from being really dangerous.

Julian Draxler took his role as captain for a night and playmaker head-on. The Parisian rewarded himself with a good first period by opening the scoring in additional time before the break, with a subtle outside of the foot in front of the goalkeeper, after being served in depth by Havertz.

"A match like this is good for a player like Julian, to show that he is not only an auxiliary player, but that he can be very important for the team thanks to his qualities", had said before the match the former international and now director of the Federation Oliver Bierhoff, supervisor of the Mannschaft.

But the Turks never gave up, and took advantage of the lack of rigor of the young Germans in defense.

© 2020 AFP