Thomas Müller is not exactly known for simply letting others speak. The German national football player likes to talk too loudly and too much for that. In al-Khor, however, on the night from Sunday to Monday, it was already after one o’clock local time, he let a colleague take the stage. Müller was just talking to journalists about the 1-1 draw against Spain in the second World Cup group game and was chasing away the annoying flies in the catacombs when Niclas Füllkrug ran past. “Come on, filling, you take over here.” Müller said it, pushed the filling jug in front of the mobile phone microphones and disappeared laughing.
Exactly this change of roles had previously happened on the lawn. In the 70th minute, national coach Hansi Flick Müller had taken off and replaced by Füllkrug. That wasn’t the worst personnel decision. Because Müller, who was up front at the top, didn’t have a good day. It ran and ran and ran – but never got there, one has to put it that way. Twenty minutes before the final whistle, Flick tried a new variant with less running and volume. With success. In the 83rd minute, Füllkrug equalized the Spanish lead Alvaro Morata (62nd).