East Germany had delievered an excellent qualification for the 1988 European Championships under Bernd Stange. They’d finished second to group winners Soviet Union, with whom they would once again cross paths. Now, though, two qualification berths were up for grabs, and so the East Germans would’ve fancied their chances. They’d rounded off that previous qualification by winning through the only goal of the game at Parc des Princes, and although it had been a French side on a heavy decline, it had taken them to 11 points from a possible 16, just two points off the group winners. Stange would retain most of the side from the previous qualification through to the forthcoming one, with only defender Uwe Zötsche and midfielder Matthias Liebers bowing out of the national team picture.

Prior to the start of the qualification, GDR had played two home friendlies: A slender win against Greece and a 2-1 defeat to neighbours Poland could’ve left them somewhat unsure as to where they stood ahead of the qualification opener, which was at home to Iceland, whom they had also faced in that previous qualification. They’d won both games with an aggregate score of 8-0, and they got off to a solid if unspectacular start by once again winning without conceding: 2-0. Two Andreas Thom goals had sent the fans home satisfied. However, they were about to enter a surprising decline, as they’d round 1988 off with a disappointing performance and an equally disappointing result in Turkey, where they got steamrollered. The hosts had won, very deservedly, 3-1. This would relieve manager Stange of his duties, something which in hindsight perhaps appeared to be a too dramatic decision. New teamchef would be Manfred Zapf, a former international who had been working for the FA in another capacity up until then.

Three winter friendlies under Zapf yielded a win, a draw and a loss, and coming into their third qualifier, at home to Turkey medio April ’89, they were something of an uncertain quantity. Stange had lined them up in 4-4-2 in both of those first two qualifiers, though in Zapf’s first big test, they had changed around to a 3-5-2 formation. Having started the qualification off with Jörg Weißflog between the posts, Zapf had recalled former national team captain René Müller for the goalkeeper’s position right after his appointment. However, the once so assured custodian had not left the best impression against the Turkish, where East Germany would succumb to a bitterly disappointing 2-0 loss, and so he would remain unpicked for the remainder of the qualification. Successive defeats to Turkey had seen East Germany get off to a disappointing start, and their World Cup hopes appeared already to be slim, with a trip to group leaders Soviet Union coming up.

Zapf would relinquish the 3-5-2 formation and return to 4-4-2 for both of their next two qualifiers: The 3-0 away defeat in Kiev and the 1-1 home draw with Austria. Three points from five qualifiers left them clinging on to mere hope, though how could their national team, which had looked so solid last time around, have declined so badly? They had conceded three first half goals in the Soviet Union, and they were never going to get anything out of that game once Dobrovolsky had put the hosts ahead early doors. Then the ‘must win’ game against the Austrians had seen them concede early once again, and although they had battered their visitors at times, they only had the late reply from Ulf Kirsten to show for. One point did not suffice. They had left themselves with an awful lot to do ahead of the autumn qualification finish. This led to the firing of Zapf, who would be replaced by Eduard Geyer, the successful Dynamo Dresden manager. He had made sure that Dynamo Berlin’s ten year claim to domestic league triumphs had come to an end. Could he transfer this success across to the national team, as he would take on a dual managerial capacity?

Under Geyer, East Germany did look more solid. They’d drawn 1-1 in their only late summer friendly, at home to Bulgaria, and subsequently they’d gone on and won 3-0 in Reykjavik, retaining a glimmer of hope still that they could fight for qualification. Geyer had lined his charges up in 5-3-2 both against Bulgaria and then against Iceland, and though they’d been bleak before the break in Iceland, they had flourished once they’d moved in front. Striker Thom had earlier in the qualification been stripped of the captaincy, and he had failed to score since that defeat in Istanbul. The three goals in Iceland came courtesy of two midfielders and exciting forward Thomas Doll, whose position in the side had seemed somewhat unsure, due to the presence of star strikers Ulf Kirsten and Andreas Thom. Could Geyer accommodate all three at the same time?

The Soviet Union came unstuck on their visit to Karl-Marx-Stadt, where GDR’s fabulous comeback to win 2-1 had really given them renewed belief that qualification was still a possibility. The fact that the four teams which were chasing second spot were taking points off each other, had thrown the group wide open. To win against more or less certain group champions Soviet Union was a massive feather in the cap for the East Germans, who had reverted to 4-4-2 yet again. However, their late goal double had only come after the arrival of Doll off the bench. The Dynamo Berlin forward kept giving Geyer something of a luxury problem, even if neither of Thom or Kirsten had performed so impeccably that dropping them had been a distinct impossibility.

East Germany would win easily in a friendly in Malta before heading to Vienna for a direct qualification decider in their final group match. The game against Austria would take place at the same time as Turkey’s visit to the Soviet Union, and while it seemed unlikely that the Turkish, despite impressing for large parts of the qualification, would win behind the Iron Curtain in the absence of three key players, the likelihood of a ‘winner takes it all’ scenario in Vienna was great. Again for an away fixture, Geyer had gone back to 5-3-2, and at the same time relegated the impressive Rainer Ernst to the substitutes’ bench in order to make space for bit-part player Detlef Schößler in a man-marking capacity at the back. However, it is improbable that the East Germans would’ve managed to get a result in Vienna no matter what line-up they’d put out. Football appeared to have taken a back seat role following the sensational historical events with the breaching of the Berlin Wall less than a week prior to the game. This had clearly unsettled their squad, whose focus on the final qualifier had taken an understanding blow. Eventually, GDR were comprehensively beaten, and they would finish a disappointing fourth from a group where they’d been hoping to progress. However, the greater questions remained: Where would East German football, and indeed the country as a whole, move on from these latest political developments?