Actually, Manuel Neuer doesn't tend to wallow in any rosy fantasies publicly, but on Monday afternoon the goalkeeper let himself be carried away to a little reverie.

A win on Tuesday evening (8.45 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Nations League and on ZDF) in Mönchengladbach against Italy would be “a great finish,” said the captain of the national team, because the team could have a whole list of disruptive ones in one fell swoop before the holiday create troubles in the world.

After the last four 1-1 draws, the players finally had "this breakthrough, this punch" of a win and could also "say: We beat a great team," explained Neuer.

Germany has not managed such a victory over one of the top nations for more than three years.

Mental aspects in focus

Incidentally, the DFB-Elf would displace Italy from the top of the Nations League group and eliminate many doubts and debates.

"We just need this sense of achievement," said Neuer, and coach Hansi Flick argued in a very similar way at the end of this international match episode, in which mental aspects are increasingly coming into focus beyond the footballing development process.

In any case, coach Flick answered more fundamental questions about the form and quality of the players on Monday by pointing out the lack of “confidence in their own quality” and the lack of “conviction” in the spaces in front of the opposing goal.

He had "hoped" that his team would be "a bit further" shortly before the summer vacation, he said, "but that has nothing to do with the idea of ​​the game".

But with self-confidence and maybe with mental exhaustion at the end of a long season.

Flick still undefeated

There may be critics who make good arguments to point to more fundamental shortcomings, but the coach and captain seem to want to keep such thoughts at bay.

The idea of ​​formulating less ambitious goals after a long series of disappointing tournaments (World Cup 2018, the third moderate Nations League and the weak European Championship 2021) - for example reaching the quarter-finals at a World Cup - was contradicted by Flick with the determination that his Players in front of the opposing goal were often missing: "Be honest: now we're in the quarter-finals, then we also want to go to the semi-finals."

Instead of more modesty, Flick calls for "the will to win games and then decide games when it matters".

Flick hasn't won four times as national coach, but he hasn't lost a single game either.

This background gives the Italy game additional weight.

With a win over the European champions and maybe even as the leader of the Europa League, he could draw a pretty positive interim conclusion after a year in office, regardless of any footballing problems.

A defeat, on the other hand, would leave the impression that many of the problems of recent years with Joachim Löw are still unresolved.

In this respect, the duel is charged with more meaning than any other game in the tenure of the national coach, who probably does not intend to rest some of the highly stressed players in this fourth game within ten days.

He clearly contradicted the remark that Joshua Kimmich and Leon Goretzka might need a break: "That's not my impression," he said and explained: "We need stability."

There will also be no experiments with Karim Adeyemi because the attacker who switched from Salzburg to Dortmund “still has to make a development”.

At the moment even “Lukas Nmecha is a bit ahead.

Karim has to take the next step, he can do that very well at Dortmund,” explained Flick.

There is no time for something like that against Italy, so on Tuesday the focus is on the result.