BERLIN, Germany, October 17 – German newspapers bemoaned and queried Wednesday how the national football side let slip a 4-0 lead to draw a World Cup qualifier against Sweden.
The visiting Swedes rebounded from being 4-0 down in Berlin’s Olympic stadium to score four second half goals with the equaliser coming three minutes into injury time.
“Jogi, was that daft!” headlined the mass circulation Bild newspaper on its front page, referring to Germany coach Joachim Loew.
It pointed out that a German national team had never before frittered away being 4-0 up against a rival team.
Decrying it as a “stupid record”, Bild said: “So beautiful, so brutal, so daft football can be!”
“60 Minutes Heaven, 30 Minutes Hell,” the online edition of Der Spiegel said, commenting that Germany had had a “terrific victory in sight”, but that after Sweden’s four quick-fire goals: “All debate on the deficiencies of the German 11 will now start again.”
“Sensationally given away,” said the Tagesspiegel over a photo of the ball hitting the back of the German net as dismayed German players looked on in what the paper termed “incredulous amazement”.
While the evening started out positively, it ended in “disappointment” and even a “big mystery”, according to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, which said Germany played 60 minutes of such “goal-oriented” football it looked “seemingly safe” in its 4-0 lead.
The Berliner Zeitung also pointed out it was a “historic show” for the German side.
“In the end, a grotesque 4-4 draw in the fourth World Cup qualifier against the utterly overstretched Scandinavians left behind many questions,” the paper said.
