The Athletic.

International breaks are pretty dull and sometimes nothing interesting ever really happens.

And that is that, as he did in Qatar, Takuma Asano seals Germany's fate.

And he may well have sealed hands he flips in the process. Well, not this international breakers, Germany's fate. And he may well have sealed hands he flicks in the process.

Well, not this international break as Germany were thumped for one at home by Japan.

The following day, for the first time in their history, they sacked their manager.

So, with a home European championship less than a year away, what next and who next for the German national team?

I'm Ayel Aki Mulare. Welcome to the Athletic Football podcast.

In for this podcast, I'm joined by the athletics, Raphael Honingstein and also Seb Stapford-Bler.

Whoa, what a weekend for German sport on one side.

The Germans are winning the basketball world championships.

Incredible.

First time ever in history on the other side, in a more traditional sense, for football,

a 4-1 defeat to Japan, the same team that knocked them out of the World Cup.

Rafa, just give us a little bit of a timeline of events as to how Germany have got to this point.

They got to this point by playing another really bad game on Saturday night.

They lost 4-1 at home to Japan.

This was a game that Flick really needed to win or at least show a very good performance to get another chance, really, to turn things around on Tuesday.

So it was the final before the final.

But because Germany flunked it so badly, the German FAA felt that they had to make a decision.

He was still allowed to take training on Sunday morning.

And then Sunday lunchtime, Sunday afternoon, he was informed that he would be relieved

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