Manuel Neuer had already won before the kick-off: namely a country point. The national goalkeeper looks after his personal Globetrotter collection with some pleasure, and his career path had not yet taken him to Skopje. The Tose Proeski Stadium, named after a pop singer who had a fatal accident at a young age, will certainly be fondly remembered because of its aged charm. The local audience went with them happily and the continuous rain at least no longer fell as monsoon as it did in the afternoon. Still, the game is unlikely to take a top spot in its ranking. The German team prevailed with a 4-0 victory befitting their rank, but they didn’t give the spectators much pleasure that evening. The result suggests a sovereign performance, but it could only be seriously discussed in the second half.
The fans who traveled with them in the curve did not care. “Away win”, they shouted and celebrated TV expert Lothar Matthäus on the blue track, and in the end they were right. The goal of the trip and this increasingly uncomfortable evening were three points, and there was also something to celebrate: The qualification for the World Cup can no longer be taken from the Germans, even if the worries about a possible failure were certainly limited. The DFB is the first association on the guest list for the tournament in the Arabian Gulf.
The meteorologists, who because of their job do the business of prophesying Hansi Flick’s lineups, had – unlike Neuer – lost before the kick-off, again. Because the new national coach likes to come up with new ideas. He did not rebuild the team here and there, as was generally expected, but on a large scale. Lukas Klostermann and David Raum took over the external defense, Thilo Kehrer took over from Antonio Rüdiger, Kai Havertz took over from Leroy Sané, Thomas Müller took over from Marco Reus. The fact that this newly formed team played their first big chance after barely two minutes – Joshua Kimmich failed by a hand’s breadth with a header – turned out to be a false promise. The drive, the drive and the zeal that helped the DFB team to 2-1 against Romania on Friday had apparently remained in Hamburg.
The German team duly assumed the position of the favorite who determined the game, but with the use of speed and intensity – the factors that Flick had praised enduringly for a weekend – most of the players held back until the break. The German dominance produced little productive, the home side knew how to seal their penalty area, and if Niklas Süle had not repeatedly intervened authoritatively and powerfully, the North Macedonians might have been more successful with their regular counterattacks.
Flick stood silently in the rain and looked thoughtfully at what was happening. His people couldn’t find the rooms they needed for their performance (Leon Goretzka), they sometimes trotted along indifferently (Havertz), screwed up the replay (Serge Gnabry) or, like Timo Werner, the shot on goal. In the past few days, Flick has fended off critical remarks about the attacker like a bodyguard, Werner’s renewed nomination is to be understood as part of a special funding program. The effect remained changeable at first: once the attacker stepped past the ball while attempting to remove the volley, then he hit the post in stoppage time after a good action.
But his moments of success were yet to come. Immediately after the break, after a nice pass from Gnabry and age-wise preparatory work from Müller through Havertz, the Germans took the lead (49th), and now the picture gradually changed. The North Macedonians had left their strength, the 0: 1 went to morale. The Germans now had more space, and Flick chose the right changes after an hour. Goretzka and Havertz left, Florian Wirtz and Karim Adeyemi came. Ten minutes later, Müller took the liberty of misappropriating a pass from Wirtz by guiding it with his hind leg straight into the run of Werner, who was now freely appearing in front of the gate. And he used – yes, ice cold – not only the chance to 2-0, but soon followed by the next goal (73rd). Now the audience fell silent, the rows in the stands thinned while the guests enjoyed themselves a bit on the lawn. Substitute Jamal Musial ended with a 4-0 win.