National team
Matthäus tough: Little European Championship chances for Reus and Hummels
Sky expert Lothar Matthäus (r.) and Julian Nagelsmann. photo
© Sven Hoppe/dpa
Lothar Matthäus analyzes Nagelsmann’s test match squad. Two have no chance for him with a view to the home European Championship.
Record-winning national soccer player Lothar Matthäus believes that Mats Hummels and Marco Reus only experience the home European Championship as spectators. “I see little chance for Reus and Hummels of jumping on the European Championship bandwagon,” wrote Matthäus (62) in his Sky column. From his point of view, neither of them could handle a possible replacement role and national coach Julian Nagelsmann “didn’t want to take the risk that negative energy would come into the team”.
Things look different for the nominated Thomas Müller. “Nagelsmann sees something special in Thomas that he perhaps doesn’t see in Marco and Mats when they come on as a substitute. Even if Müller doesn’t play, he’s definitely not someone who is negative.”
Nagelsmann starts the European Championship year with a radically changed national team. Exactly three months before the opening game against Scotland in Munich on June 14th, the DFB head coach nominated six newcomers for the friendly games against France and the Netherlands on Thursday.
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At the same time, he did without several prominent players such as BVB defenders Hummels, Niklas Süle and Nico Schlotterbeck as well as Bayern professionals Leon Goretzka, Leroy Sané and Serge Gnabry. “I believe that Goretzka still has a chance, and that also applies to Sané, Gnabry and one of the Dortmund defenders Nico Schlotterbeck or Niklas Süle,” said Matthäus.
For ex-national player Dietmar Hamann (50), none of the non-nominees should complain. “I don’t think anyone is in a position to say, ‘I don’t understand why I’m not there,'” said the Sky expert. Goretzka has “simply shown too little in the last few weeks and months. That will be an incentive for him to get back into the squad in the next few weeks,” said Hamann.
The BVB professionals don’t have a chance either. If Dortmund make it to the semi-finals or finals of the Champions League, “the national coach probably won’t be able to avoid taking more Dortmund players with him to the European Championship,” said Hamann.