Scenes that no football fan wants to see – and no footballer wants to experience: At the World Cup qualifying match between the German national team and North Macedonia they became – once again – a sad reality.
The FC Bayern midfielder ran to the corner flag twice to take a corner kick and stood up to shoot. And two times it was clearly visible in the TV pictures: A large, green point of light that ran over Joshua Kimmich’s face, was supposed to dazzle him and disturb him at the corner.
Somewhere in the stands, a trailer apparently smuggled a laser pointer into the stadium. At the second Kimmich corner in the 18th minute, referee Danny Makkelie interrupted briefly in the hope that the disturbance would end. Kimmich then took the corner anyway – it brought nothing. The rest of the game ran until half-time without any further influence from the audience – but it is quite possible that the action will have an aftermath.
The Dutch referee Danny Makkelie interrupted the action shortly before kicking the corner kick in question due to the use of a laser. Shortly afterwards, the stadium announcer also spoke up in the Todor Proeski Arena. Neither did anything, because the incident was repeated a few minutes when Kimmich was caught for the second time by a laser pointer in the face and in the eyes when it was again available next to the corner flag for the standard version.
A recent case with the same structure occurred during EURO 2020 when the same thing happened to Danish national goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel in the semifinals against England.
Away from the laser attack, Kai Havertz and Timo Werner ensured Germany became the first European nation to book their place at next year’s World Cup by scoring three times between them against North Macedonia on Monday night. It finished 4-0 and made it seven wins from eight in qualifying for the team now managed by Hansi Flick. They have an unassailable eight-point lead over both Romania and North Macedonia with two qualifiers remaining.
Flick was without Toni Rudiger because of a back injury, but he did start Havertz and Werner in Germany’s attack. On the half-hour, Werner shot straight at the home side’s keeper Stole Dimitrievski, and he then twisted and turned closer in before thumping the post in first-half stoppage time. Four minutes into the second half, Serge Gnabry split the Macedonian defence open and an unselfish Thomas Muller rolled the ball to his left as Dimitrievski came out, giving Havertz a tap-in. It was his second goal of this qualifying campaign.
Havertz was replaced on the hour, shortly after a booking which ruled him out of the next qualifier in November. Germany doubled their lead in the 70th minute and it was a deserved goal for Werner, who raced on to Muller’s clever pass and smashed a first-time shot past Dimitrievski.
He only had to wait another three minutes for his next goal, beautifully curling a shot beyond Dimitrievski when a cross reached him at the far post just inside the box. He was full of smiles when withdrawn a minute later, Rudiger among those congratulating him on the bench. Jamal Musiala, who replaced Havertz, scored his first international goal to complete the scoring late on.