Football – The magical trio of the national team

The promise seems to have been fulfilled – and sooner than expected. Jamal Musiala and Florian Wirtz have led the German national team back into the small circle of the world’s best football nations. Already at the home European Championships in the summer, the two 21-year-olds were seen as bearers of hope for the future of German football. Meanwhile, the future is the present. Together with Kai Havertz, Wirtz and Musiala are well on their way to forming the strongest attacking midfield in international football. The most recent proof: the 7-0 win against Bosnia-Herzegovina on Saturday evening.

The three offensive artists took the completely overwhelmed Bosnians apart at the home game in Freiburg without mercy. After just 78 seconds, Germany’s new header monster Musiala took the early lead with his fourth header goal of the season. Florian Wirtz scored the first direct free kick goal of his career with his brace, and Kai Havertz, in addition to his goal to make the score 3-0 at half-time, also contributed two assists in the second half.

“I think the performance today was very, very good from the whole team,” said Wirtz happily after the game. And midfield partner Musiala also had nothing to complain about during the television interview with “RTL”: “It was fun. We did the things we wanted to do right. After a few goals, everyone can play freely. The fact that there weren’t more goals for the trio was mainly due to the fact that Musiala and Wirtz were replaced early by national coach Julian Nagelsmann after just under an hour.

The numbers from Havertz, Wirtz and Musiala are still impressive: In the Nations League A, Group 3, they have a total of 15 points in five games – which could have been even more if you consider that Musiala and Havertz have two each Missed Nations League games due to injury. Overall, the national team’s attacking midfield looks even better compared to the European Championship, which ended with the bitter quarter-final defeat against Spain.

On the one hand, this is because Jamal Musiala and Florian Wirtz are taking the next step towards absolute world class. The Leverkusen playmaker has become even more efficient this season and almost no longer makes the wrong decisions on the pitch. Dribbling artist Musiala is much more determined in front of the goal and has already scored 11 goals after 17 games for Bayern Munich and the DFB team.

On the other hand, the national team’s creative center also benefits from the fact that Kai Havertz moved back from the center of the attack after the European Championships. Since then, the Arsenal FC professional has proven to be the ideal partner for Wirtz and Musiala. It is not for nothing that the 25-year-old is considered one of the best spatial interpreters since Thomas Müller invented this role. Through his clever position changes, the Champions League winner makes it possible for Wirtz and Musiala to appear more and more often in the same spaces on the pitch. An element that was largely missing for the Germans at Euro 2024.

None of the three are particularly attached to the position in the attacking midfield line specified by national coach Nagelsmann. Giving the trio a geometric shape based on the Stuttgart model (see triangle, magical) therefore seems impossible. Rather, it is Havertz’s deep runs and his dropping that open up the spaces through which Wirtz and Musiala can play like hardly anyone else in world football. And the understanding of each other’s movements grows from game to game. This was particularly evident against Bosnia before the goals to make it 3-0 and 5-0.

For the Germans’ third goal after a failed goal kick by the Bosnian keeper Vasilj, Wirtz first crossed the ball-carrying Havertz’s back before the Arsenal professional sent the Leverkusen player into the penalty area with a pass to the right. Without raising his head again, Wirtz put the first touch of the ball perfectly back to Havertz, who only had to push in from five meters (Musiala would have been lurking next to him). At 5-0, it was Musiala who put the ball into Havertz’s path on the left side of the penalty area. His cross into the middle was blocked, but Havertz’s subsequent shot was only able to be cleared by Vasilj directly at the feet of Wirtz, who pushed the ball over the line at the second post.

Julian Nagelsmann was particularly enthusiastic about this goal, which was preceded by a high ball win by striker Tim Kleindienst: “We also want to offer running routes so that we can get in front of the goal with a little more risk so that we don’t always have to play against this deep block “, explained the 37-year-old and gave an insight into what the focus has been since the European Championships: “We won a lot of the ball, even during the European Championships, and didn’t play forward quickly enough. Today we even scored a few counterattack goals after winning the ball.”

With Musiala, Havertz and Wirtz, the national coach seems to have found the optimal line-up for the direct offensive game he wants. Now the magical trio just has to prove that they can hold their own against Europe’s heavyweights. After the 7-0 win against Bosnia, Germany qualified for the quarter-finals of the Nations League as group winners ahead of the last group game on Tuesday in Hungary. Stronger opponents are waiting there. But Wirtz, Musiala and Havertz have only just begun to work their magic.