Germany only wins against outsiders Luxembourg with a bang. Julian Nagelsmann’s team was particularly disappointing in the first half. The individual criticism.
William Laing reports from Luxembourg
Luxembourg and Germany are separated by 87 places in the world rankings. But there was little of that to be seen on Friday at the Stade de Luxembourg in World Cup qualifying. From the start, it was the outsiders who dominated the game, putting the favorites from Germany under pressure and repeatedly forcing them to make mistakes. From the DFB’s point of view, it was fortunate that the score went into the break 0-0.
Striker Nick Woltemade admitted on RTL: “The manner in the first half was not good. We had too little intensity, too little possession of the ball.” National coach Julian Nagelsmann admitted: “We deserved to concede a goal, but we didn’t get one. We can consider ourselves lucky.” St. Pauli’s Danel Sinani failed twice in front of the German goal (11th and 16th minutes), and Aiman Dardari from FC Augsburg also shot just past the DFB goal shortly afterwards.
“It was much more difficult than we had hoped. In the first half we didn’t throw everything in right from the start,” Nagelsmann summed up on RTL. “We couldn’t calm it down at all.”
The disappointing performance, especially in the first round, is also reflected in the t-online grades. Some players were particularly disappointing in midfield. Three national players received a grade of five, one even a grade of six. After all: With Nick Woltemade and Leroy Sané there were also two bright spots among the field players. You can find the complete individual review in the photo show above or here.
Of course, Jeff Strasser was in a much more positive mood. The Luxembourg national coach said: “You can be proud of the team’s performance. We defended forward, attacked Germany and posed problems for them. We have to reward ourselves in the first half. We were punished mercilessly. A team like Germany, with such quality, takes advantage of mistakes like that.”
One thing is clear: the national team has to show a better face against Slovakia on Monday, otherwise there could be a serious defeat. Because that would mean missing out on direct qualification for the World Cup and would result in the playoffs.