Florian Wirtz came in for some unflattering reviews from numerous German media over his performance for his country in their UEFA Nations League semi-final defeat to Portugal on Wednesday night.Amid ongoing speculation over a move to Liverpool – which some sources have gone as far as claiming to be ‘99% done‘ – the Bayer Leverkusen playmaker was in action for his national team in Munich. Despite opening the scoring just after half-time, the 22-year-old ended up on the wrong side of a 2-1 loss to Diogo Jota and co.The result has naturally gone down badly in Germany, and a few journalists from the nation didn’t spare the seemingly Anfield-bound star.What did German media say about Wirtz?Bild lamented that Wirtz was ‘barely visible’ in the first half, although they did commend the one-two that he played with Josha Kimmich for his 48th-minute goal. Interestingly, they described the 22-year-old as an ‘almost Liverpool player’.Sport1 wrote that, aside from a spell at the start of the second half when the Leverkusen playmaker ‘took control of the game’, he otherwise ‘largely disappeared’ on a night when Julian Nagelsmann’s beaten side ‘desperately needed his genius’.Sky Germany praised his involvement for the goal but claimed that he mostly ‘disappointed’ on the night, particularly in the first half.(Photo by Alex Grimm/Getty Images)All three outlets gave him a score of 3, but that’s not as unflattering as it might initially seem – whereas player ratings in UK media are usually on an ascending scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the best), many German publications use a 1 to 5 system in descending order (1 being the top mark), so Wirtz’s general rating was more middling than poor.Wirtz was still one of Germany’s best players against PortugalEven taking that into consideration, we’re a little surprised with the negative reviews of the 22-year-old’s performance, especially when viewing it through a statistical prism.Sofascore rated him as Germany’s best player on the night, with the Liverpool-linked playmaker winning a team-high nine duels along with three tackles, completing three out of five dribbles and both of his long passes, and conjuring 40% of his side’s shots on target. He might be slightly disappointed with an overall pass completion rate of 76%, though – his average for the 2024/25 season was 79.9% (FBref).In addition to his goal, he played one sublime diagonal cross in the opening exchanges (although nothing came of the subsequent chance). He also showed that he’s not afraid to square up to opposition players, having had brief run-ins with Bruno Fernandes and Bernardo Silva, something which’ll likely have pleased many Reds fans.Many German media might’ve taken a dim view of Wirtz’s performance against Portugal, but we certainly liked what he saw from him, and if anything it’ll make Kopites even more excited to hopefully see him working his magic at Anfield from next season onwards!The post ‘Disappeared’ – German media rip into ‘barely visible’ Florian Wirtz despite scoring v Portugal appeared first on The Empire of The Kop.