Does that give us hope or not? The German national team showed what it can do in the respectable 0:0 draw against Ukraine – but also a number of things that make the tournament an unpredictable affair.
Almost exactly a year ago, it was not about creating a so-called European Championship atmosphere. The German national team welcomed Ukraine to Bremen for a football match that was somewhat overwhelmed by itself. The match had long since lost sight of its actual purpose: on the one hand, it was about demonstrating solidarity with Ukraine, but on the other, there was a celebratory occasion on the calendar: the 1,000th international match in the DFB’s international history was being played. In addition, the then national coach Hans-Dieter “Hansi” Flick used this match to try out a series of unusual experiments; he had a three-man defense that he himself was not convinced of, with defensive leader Matthias “Matze” Ginter and a right wing player called Marius Wolf, whose nickname I cannot remember.