Thanks to goalscorer Kai Havertz and double packer Timo Werner, five-winning starter Hansi Flick reached the first stage goal as national coach in a hurry in the wet and cold Skopje. With the sovereign 4-0 (0-0) against North Macedonia on Monday evening, the national soccer team secured the group victory in the World Cup qualification and thus the ticket to the 2022 final in Qatar. Havertz completed a fine attack in the 50th minute, which Serge Gnabry initiated with a dream pass to Thomas Müller. The initially unhappy Werner rewarded himself within a short time with his qualifying hits four and five (70th / 73rd). Substitute Jamal Musiala scored his first international goal shortly before the end (83rd).
After hours of rain in front of around 16,000 spectators on the deep lawn of the national stadium, hard, exhausting work was the order of the day.
The revenge for the embarrassing 1: 2 against the North Macedonians in the first leg was ultimately clear.
Flicks changed to five positions. Eleven gained a greater chance.
Werner hit the post in front of his goals (45th + 2).
With the fifth win in the fifth international match, the 56-year-old Flick also equalized the start record of his predecessor Joachim Löw from 2006. With 21 points, the DFB team is in Group J after Romania's 1-0 support against Armenia at the end of the qualification No longer to be displaced from first place in November.
The World Cup group opponents will not be drawn until next spring.
After the show of strength in the 2: 1 against Romania in Hamburg, Flick relied on rested players and brought two fresh offensive forces into the goal when the last ailing captain Manuel Neuer returned.
And the changes paid off: after a fine through pass from Gnabry, Müller proved his qualities as a template provider on the counterattack and played for Havertz who had also run.
Little new demand
In difficult conditions, the Chelsea professional was able to play his technical extra class several times, moving with quick turns. After less than two minutes, Havertz already gave the template for the first big chance of the game with a cross from the left position: North Macedonia's goalkeeper Stole Dimitrievski saved Joshua Kimmich's header, who was blinded several times by spectators with a green laser pointer at his own corners, in dire need in front of the line.
As against Romania, the German game initially lacked precision, even if some mistakes were due to the pitch. North Macedonia left the ball to the guests, did not press and only attacked a good 20 meters from their own penalty area. The extreme counter-tactics rarely put the German goal in danger, however, in the first half Neuer only had to parry the weak low shot by first-leg winner Eljif Elmas (26th).
In defense, Flick changed the statics of his back four compared to the win against Romania, also because Champions League winner Antonio Rüdiger was out with back problems and was not even in the squad.
Thilo Kehrer moved from the left into the center, so that Hoffenheim's David Raum made his starting eleven debut in the second international match.
"The right side should be a bit more stable and the left should go off", Flick explained the distribution of tasks between Raum and Lukas Klostermann from Leipzig, who replaced Jonas Hofmann as the right full-back.
And Raum did his job with high running intensity, hitting perfectly fitting balls from the left into the center.
After a cross from the 23-year-old and a header from Müller, Werner was unable to overcome Dimitrievski to take the lead from close range (26th).
The Chelsea striker had again not only verbally received the backing of Flick, but was initially unable to dispel his uncertainty after the media criticism from outside. Shortly before half-time, Werner actually did everything right, worked out a good position at the end of the six-meter space, but only hit the post (45th + 2) - a symbol of his current misery. The German team fired 14 shots in the direction of the opponent's goal before the break - the final action was still a long time coming.
Attempt number 15 led to the deserved sense of achievement at the beginning of the second half.
After Havertz's seventh international goal, it was clear to the North Macedonians that the effort had cost a lot of energy.
And so Werner also got the reward for his appearance.
The 25-year-old artistically scored his fourth goal in qualifying for the World Cup and only a little later added a flick from 15 meters.
Immediately afterwards he was allowed to leave and made way for Jamal Musiala, the Bayern professional finished with his first goal in the DFB jersey.
In the last qualifying games against Liechtenstein and in Armenia, Flick can already use it to test for the World Cup.