First, the insects. There has been an infestation of mosquitoes at Germany’s training camp in Herzogenaurach in Bavaria, one that has claimed numerous victims, with a fortnight of humid weather rendering the squad’s outdoor viewing garden – which sits right next to a forest – almost unusable in the evenings. “I have already been bitten two or three times,” the striker Maximilian Beier admitted. “But if that’s the biggest problem, then fine …”
Then, the thunder. The DWD, Germany’s equivalent of the Met Office, is warning of severe thunderstorms, torrential rain, large hailstones, hurricane-force winds and perhaps even tornadoes across the west of the country on Saturday: perfectly timed to coincide with the crunch last-16 clash against Denmark in Dortmund.
If Germany’s Euro 2024 campaign is beginning to take the appearance of a biblical ordeal, then rest assured: there are still plenty of potential plagues to come. The 1-1 draw against Switzerland in their final group game – salvaged only by an injury-time equaliser from Niclas Füllkrug – has served a timely reproof to the illusion that any of this was going to be easy.
And Germany’s struggles in Frankfurt on Sunday night certainly seem to have focused minds, perhaps even reawakened a few old sprites. “We need to improve the rest of our defence,” Lothar Matthäus wrote in his newspaper column. “I have always said I’d be happy with the quarter-finals,” the former national team midfielder Mario Basler said. “If we are attacked one on one, we have problems,” ZDF’s Christoph Kramer, the former Germany player, warned.
Outside the commentariat, the main point of contention appears to be over Füllkrug, Germany’s big stallion striker, who plays his club football in Dortmund and who now boasts an enviable record of a goal every 58 minutes for the national team. Füllkrug’s international tournament record – four goals in six games, despite never having played more than 35 minutes in any of them – has generated a groundswell of public support for the idea that he should probably start.