The “underestimation disaster” in history—will the German team repeat the same mistake?

Has there ever been a case in German football history where they “crashed” against a weaker side? Yes, and there are quite a few. The most famous, of course, was at the 2018 World Cup group stage, when Germany lost 0-1 to Mexico. Before that match, everyone thought Germany would beat Mexico easily—so what happened? Germany was in a daze the entire game, and Mexico’s counterattacks left them scrambling. Although Curaçao’s strength is several tiers below Mexico’s, this mindset of “underestimating the opponent” is always the strongest enemy of top teams.

Going even further back, at the 2004 European Championship, Germany drew 1-1 with Latvia—another classic “strong team slip-up.” At the time, Latvia’s world ranking was outside the top 50, but Germany simply couldn’t do anything about them. These historical lessons tell us: football matches are not just a matter of simple addition and subtraction based on paper strength; attitude, mindset, and match-day performance are just as important.

However, I don’t think Nagelsmann will allow his players to underestimate their opponents. He’s a coach who pays great attention to details, and he will definitely replay Curaçao’s match footage again and again before the game, telling the players: this team that can make it to the World Cup is definitely not a pushover. What’s more, after being eliminated in the group stage for two consecutive World Cups, the players have a fire burning inside them—and this match is exactly a great opportunity for them to vent. The chance of underestimating the opponent is unlikely; instead, they might end up playing even more fiercely because they want to prove themselves too badly.

So even though there have been “underestimation disasters” in the past, this time I’m not worried about Germany slipping up. They will tell the whole world with a big win: the German war machine is back.

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