Germany, Italy woes can't be explained by cheap rhetoric

Germany have lost four of their past six friendly matches, including Saturday's 4-1 defeat to Japan.Germany and Italy both suffered a turbulent few days in the past week after poor performances at the weekend: the Germans lost at home to Japan 4-1 and eventually fired coach Hansi Flick, while Italy were held to an unimpressive 1-1 draw by North Macedonia.

They both won on Tuesday night -- Germany defeating France and Italy besting Ukraine to put their Euro 2024 qualification back on track -- but we still got to hear the usual array of senseless knee-jerk reactions. They range from pretentious guff about the general decline of society (especially in Germany) to endless fretting about the…