Germany – Hungary: Manuel Neuer? Manuel Neuer!

46th minute: Go on.

Break. Maxi Mittelstädt’s crosses have so far been like the balloons that are sent off at weddings with a lovely message: they can land anywhere. So if you find a Mittelstädt cross, you’re welcome to keep it.

Break: It’s a bit disappointing that Karl Lauterbach posts something like this without pointing out the dangers of headers.

Break. Let’s put it this way: after this half, the goalkeeper debate remains a relic from the distant past, before this tournament. Manuel Neuer made two saves: once when the game was only a few seconds old and some spectators, us and Joshua Kimmich, were not quite at their peak. And later, he cleared a free kick from Liverpool’s Dominik Szoboszlai off the line, which had already flown towards the corner with the attitude of a dream goal. The foot save afterwards was just as important. İlkay Gündoğan appears to have had the same pick-me-up as Neuer. He followed up on a ball extorted by Jonathan Tah, elegantly pushed the somewhat unlucky Willi Orbán aside and stole the ball back to Jamal Musiala. With the calmness of a 20-year-old, he even received the ball and pushed it into the goal for his second ball of the tournament. A deserved, if somewhat lucky, lead.

Halftime. This is initially neutral information, until you remember that you now have to see the Check24 advertisement again with its fake laughs.

47th minute: “Nothing” was that, “nothing“, complains Sandro Wagner to the referee. It’s no use, free kick for Hungary. And after Neuer parries Willi Orbán’s first ball, it lands on Roland Sallai’s head – and then actually in the goal. This time only the linesman saves. Offside.

45th minute: Musiala, the man who really wasted everything in Qatar, almost scoring his third goal of the tournament. Perhaps he is a reverse Thomas Müller and can only play in the European Championship, not the World Cup. But here he only hits the side netting.

43 minutes: The Hungarians aren’t doing much offensively at the moment. I’ve always wanted to write this sentence from the handbook of football clichés, but I’ll do it quickly before someone deletes it: The Hungarians are mixing concrete. (Just imagine Werner Hansch’s commentary voice.)

41st minute: This time, Toni Kroos’ seventh corner finds the head of Barnabás Varga, who heads the ball just wide of his own goal. Perhaps the right moment to write: The own goal rate at this European Championship is unusually high: there have already been three. And the second matchday has only just begun.

41st minute: Just so that there are no misunderstandings: For a language that Egeszségedre instead of cheers, I naturally have nothing but awe. Why do I have time to drift off here? The game is fading a little. It’s almost halftime. Felidősays the Hungarian.

Hungary fans cheer to the melody of Gigi d’Agostino’s Love alwaysAnd Germany fans always sing the embarrassing, cliché-ridden hit Mexico from a silly band that needs to call itself “evil”.

36 minutes: Mittelstädt crosses to Kimmich. One defender to the other. This much can be revealed: Their strengths lie elsewhere. At least it’s a corner.

35th minute: Despite Germany’s 1-0 win, one must say that the Hungarians are doing quite well with their relationalist football. But the Germans have read their Plato and are arguing against it.