Germany’s incredible run at EURO 2024 has finally come to and end by virtue of heartbreak right at the death. After Florian Wirtz had scored in the 89th minute to ultimately send the match into extra time at 1-1 a piece, Mikel Merino’s goal at the death of the second period of extra time sent Spain through and spoiled the German party in Stuttgart. Germany were arguably the more threatening side in extra time, but Julian Nagelsmann’s men were ultimately made to rue their missed chances and will now have to digest what is well and truly a bitter pill to swallow.
Spain now go on to face France in the semifinals in Munich at the Allianz Arena, but will have to do so without a few key players due to cumulative yellow cards, most of which came against Germany.
Nagelsmann had once again chosen to start with Kai Havertz, Leroy Sané, Jamal Musiala, and İlkay Gündoğan as the front attacking four players, which had been an alteration from the matches where he chose to start Wirtz instead of Sané. There was also a question of whether or not he would start a natural striker in Niclas Füllkrug, but he stuck with what had been working all tournament, playing with Havertz as the most advanced attacker in a sort of false nine role.
At the halftime interval, Nagelsmann brought on both Robert Andrich and Wirtz, replacing the pair of Emre Can and Sané. At the time, both swaps appeared to be purely tactical from Nagelsmann, but after the match it was revealed that the manager swapped Wirtz for Sané due to the Bayern Munich man having an injury. According to Tz’s Philipp Kessler ( per @iMiaSanMia), the Bayern winger was having an issue with his pubic bone during the first half and needed to be subbed off at the break.
Sané had been carrying this injury problem for most of the second half of Bayern’s season and his training and playing minutes were monitored for their Champions League knockout stage ties against Arsenal and then Real Madrid. He missed some Bundesliga matches and had lighter training regiments to try to keep him as fresh as possible for the European matches, but perhaps it is now catching up with him.
It is unclear if and when the change would have happened from Nagelsmann if Sané was not hurt, but it does not matter at this point as Germany are out of the EUROs and Spain are through to the next round.
Now, there also could further fallout as Sané might not be ready for the start of Bayern Munich’s training camp later this month per Sky Sport reporter Kerry Hau (as captured by @iMiaSanMia):
It’s doubtful whether Leroy Sané would be able to take part in the full pre-season with Bayern. Sané suffered a setback yesterday and asked to be subbed off at half time because he was not able to move freely due to renewed pubic bone problems.
Looking for more thoughts and analysis of Germany’s crushing 2-1 loss to Spain? We have you covered with our Bavarian Podcast Works — Postgame Show. We have takes on Julian Nagelsmann’s controversial starting XI, a rundown of the scoring and substitutions, and ideas on how this all fell apart in front of an absolutely electric crowd. You can get the podcast on Spotify or below: