Florian Wirtz scored after seven seconds as Germany secured a 2-0 victory over France in an international friendly match played at the Stade des Lumieres in Lyon.
Germany took the lead in the last seconds of play when 20-year-old sensation Kai Havertz startled the Lyon fans with a goal shortly after halftime. The hosts of Euro 2024 put up a fantastic show.
Playing for Leverkusen’s playmaker Wirtz, Toni Kroos got the ball from kickoff and chipped it forward in his first international match since 2021.
With only seven seconds remaining, Wirtz took a risk and, finding himself unguarded, blasted a powerful dipping shot that had Brice Samba fixed to the spot as the ball zipped under the crossbar.
“I don’t think anyone understood or realised what was happening. We were all quite surprised, but there was obviously a lot of joy. You can’t start a match any better,” Wirtz said to German television channel ZDF.
“But for it to work so well and lead to this chance to score, it’s great.”
In the seven seconds that separated Wirtz’s goal from Christoph Baumgartner’s lightning-fast strike earlier on Saturday, the record for the fastest ever international goal would have been tied—it was set in 2013 by fellow countryman Lukas Podolski.
Havertz gave the visitors a two-goal lead four minutes into the second half, which they never appeared to give up.
After Wirtz found Jamal Musiala with a long pass, the Bayern Munich youngster had much too much space in the area. He circled Samba and laid the ball on a plate for Havertz, who was sprinting in.
On the hour mark, France coach Didier Deschamps made a substitution, but even with star attacker Kylian Mbappe present, the hosts lacked a cutting edge without Antoine Griezmann, who missed his first international since 2017.
Julian Nagelsmann’s team appeared to have the better chance of scoring the next goal, as only excellent stops from Samba kept debutants Maximilian Mittelstaedt and Thomas Mueller from scoring.
When Mittelstaedt misjudged a clearance onto his own arm in the 88th minute, France came dangerously close to cutting the lead. However, Antonio Rudiger was there to hack the ball off the line, and VAR later determined that the handball inside the box was inadvertent.
“We can obviously be very satisfied. We’ve taken some good steps forward, some important steps forward. These are the last few chances for us to get a bit of a feel for Euro 2024. We’ll take that with us today,” said Kroos.
As they continue to get ready for the European Championship this summer, Germany will host the Netherlands on Tuesday while France will play Chile.
Photo by DFB/ Philipp Reinhard
