Only 22 minutes had been played before the international match between the German national team and Colombia was already over. At least temporarily. Four speedsters, apparently activists, had tried to get into the interior of the arena at Schalke. The game had to be interrupted.
While the spectators in front of the television were presented with a repeat of the South Americans’ most recent goal chance, the approximately 40,000 spectators in the stadium followed at least two of the disruptors, a young man and a young woman in uniform T-shirts with the imprint “Stop the fossil madness ‘, chasing across the square to escape from the law enforcement officers. Your two colleagues had to bury the project right from the start.
One had been caught in the quartet’s daring attempt to gain access to the interior via the roof of the players’ tunnel, a second made it only slightly further. He was stopped at the level of the TV cameras on the sidelines. And the two remaining? Were slowed down by the previously inconsistent German defense.
Obviously, goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen and defender Emre Can had anticipated the goal of the dynamic duo. In any case, the two speedsters headed straight for the German goal. To chain or glue? There had been similar actions at other sporting events in the past few months. For example in cycling or tennis.
However, Ter Stegen and Can reacted with presence of mind and kept the disruptors away from the goal, deflecting them past the post, where security forces were finally able to finalize the access and the game then continued.
However, the successful action of the German national players could not give the German defense any security. Colombia created more scoring chances in the first half. In particular, the goalkeeper of FC Barcelona caused a big faux pas with an unsuccessful attempt at clarification.