Germany continues this Tuesday evening in Cologne (8:45 p.m.) the long journey of friendly matches towards “its” Euro 2024 with a second meeting against Belgium, three days after winning its first against Peru (2-0) . It was the first outing after a completely missed Qatari World Cup, where the Mannschaft did not come out of its pool, a year and a half after a Euro where the road had already stopped in the round of 16.
This match against Belgium is the first big test for a team where a new wind is blowing since eleven Globalists have not been taken over. Flick approaches this with great caution: “Belgium will be an opponent of a different caliber than Peru. There is a new manager, some new players. He’s a tough opponent. At the football level, it is one of the best teams in Europe. They have a lot of players who can make a difference one-on-one. They are compact, defensively speaking and know how to deal with opposing pressure. Yes, it will be a good test for us to assess ourselves.”
Kehrer and Gnabry will be there
Flick will have to compose without beautiful people. In addition to Neuer, who was injured for a long time, he had to send home Kai Havertz (flu) and defender Nico Schlotterbeck (thigh), two players who started against Peru and had been interesting since Havertz was the basis of the two goals of the his own and that Schlotterbeck, in addition to delivering a successful defensive match, obtained a penalty… missed by Havertz.
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There is no suspense regarding their replacement. For Schlotterbeck, in central defense, it will be Thilo Kehrer. The ex-central defender of PSG, today at West Ham, replaced Schlotterbeck when he left the field on Saturday and his coach already announced on Tuesday that he would start.
Ditto for the middle line where it will be the Bavarian Serge Gnabry, who replaced Timo Werner on Saturday, who is expected to start in place of Havertz.
Finally, Flick had already announced that ter Stegen would be in goal for the two friendlies in the absence of the injured Manuel Neuer.