After shaking the world in 2014 and narrowly missing qualifying for the final at Euro 2016, the Germans no longer seem to scare many people.
After an elimination from the group stages in Russia three years ago, the Mannschaft has never succeeded in stimulating a revival.
However, are we not exaggerating a little their outsider side?
We looked into the issue a few hours from France-Germany.
From our special correspondent in Munich,
If you are wondering how the Mannschaft is doing, which the Blues face Tuesday night in Munich for their entry into the Euro competition, Antonio Rüdiger announced the color Sunday at a press conference. For the very recent winner of the Champions League with Chelsea, “You have to know how to be dirty and not always try to get by with good football. Against players like those of the France team, it will also be necessary to send a message… and early. "
This promise of a schlague match says a lot about the look that the Mannschaft has on its own strengths, or that of its opponent, it depends.
We don't know you, but we are having a little trouble getting used to this cautious discourse, especially coming from a team that is used to tumbling into competitions by bombing the pecs.
Yet this is what they repeat throughout press conferences, starting with coach Joachim Löw, who explained at the start of the rally that his team was not one of the big favorites, "unlike France".
Are you bluffing, Martoni?
For Robert Pirès, this unanimity smacks of showdown three kilometers away. “Be careful, when your opponent starts to make this kind of speech, it is also to put you in a certain comfort, warns the European champion in 2000. The Germans we know them, they only want it. is to beat us and they are not going to let it go. Yes, they have some concerns, yes they are in full reconstruction, but when they talk like that it is also to release some pressure and put it on the France team. I am suspicious of their speech. "
Conversely, Patrick Guillou would rather tend to refute the theory of the big bluff. "It's not the same Germany it was a few years ago," warns the beIN Sport consultant for the Bundesliga. We can feel it in the speeches of the players, it is not at all the same tone as in the past, "we are going to the final, we are going to be champion". And it's the same in public opinion, we are much more measured this year. "
For us, German public opinion came down to a few passers-by when we left the airport on Monday afternoon, but that was enough for us to get an idea of the general atmosphere in Munich.
“Deutsche Mannschaft?
Kaput, katastrophen ”, we vaguely understood in the mouth of Ahmed, a trader of Turkish origin who arrived in Bavaria 50 years ago.
"You're going to kick our ass, cowardly, bluntly, Klauss, crushing his cigarette before rushing off to catch his plane."
Anyway here people are not very excited about the Euro, even if we play at home.
It must be said that we've been falling asleep for three years watching the selection play and we don't really believe in our chances this summer.
"
It's really depressed in Munich
If Klauss gives the impression of wanting to open his veins at the slightest mention of his selection, it is because it has not done much to forget the humiliation suffered in Russia in 2018 with an elimination hardly believable from the hen stages. Joachim Löw did try to taser his group by throwing the old Müller, Hummels and Boateng cabins overboard, but the generation renewal was hardly a real success. To the point of forcing the coach to swallow his pride and recall the Bayern striker and the Dortmund defender in the group for the Euro.
“German football has gone through three very, very complicated years,” says Patrick Guillou.
They qualified for the Euro, ok, but you have to see how it played… It was a stereotypical game, not very shy or efficient, it's really not fun to watch.
And behind, it was the catamaran.
"The former defender of Freiburg certainly alludes to the ultimate rouste (6-0) suffered in the League of Nations against a Roja yet not at its best either.
A defeat "which remains across many gorges in Germany," he adds.
And are we talking about this defeat against the immense North Macedonia (no offense) in qualifying for the 2022 World Cup?
"No, we never talk about it again!"
», Klauss says before taking the tangent for good.
Deschamps remains suspicious
There would therefore be no cause for hope. The der 'of Joachim Löw perhaps, who could push the players to offer a decent exit to the one who led them to the roof of the world in 2014? "For me it's a double-edged sword," reflects Ethan, a Swiss journalism student, a fan of the Mannschaft since childhood. The executives of the group will want to do well, but at the same time we cannot exclude the danger of a certain decompression, even unconscious, by saying good, it's his last, we know he is leaving and we bet on 2022 with Hansi Flick. "
In the end, only the French can believe a little that the Mannschaft still has some under the hood.
“They may be in a phase of reconstruction, but we are still talking about very great players who all play in major European clubs, they have experience of this kind of match.
We expect a very difficult meeting on Tuesday, which is more at home in front of their home crowd, ”Didier Deschamps tried to temper Monday night at a press conference in Munich.
Unless there too it is a bluff.
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