Lothar Matthäus criticizes DFB player to Northern Ireland victory

To Northern Ireland victory

“I expected more”: Matthew criticizes DFB player

The most important thing did the DFB team against Northern Ireland: the game was won. Germany did not show a brilliant performance.

Despite the 3-1 home win of the German national team against Northern Ireland, record international Lothar Matthäus is not satisfied with the performance of the DFB team. “I have already expected more for some players. After the early tour, the team did not broadcast the security that has to give early leadership,” said Matthew after the game on Sunday evening at RTL.

However, he did not mention which players the 64-year-old meant exactly. However, among other things, central defender Antonio Rüdiger, who failed evil and caused by the corner from which the gate fell from Isaac Price (34th) before the northern end of the Northern Irid, 1: 1 equalizer. Despite his criticism, Matthäus also said: “Compared to the Slovakian game, an increase in performance was recognizable, if not over 90 minutes.”

National coach Julian Nagelsmann meanwhile classified the game more positively. “Today only the momentum counts, we had to win the game-and we did that,” said the 38-year-old, who also made a difficult phase after the 1-1: “After the goal, we were unsettled, but I think that’s normal after Thursday.”

At the corner, Price sneaked away behind the back of Serge Gnabry and hit under the crossbar. “That is too easy. He (Gnabry, editor’s note) is in the situation of the blocker and has to block the opponent,” said Nagelsmann, who spoke overall of a “deserved victory”, especially because of the last 30 minutes.

In the first half, only a little looked like a DFB victory, which spectators acknowledged with whistles in the Cologne stadium. “We have to show understanding for the fans, the tickets cost a lot and then they also want to see performance,” said Nagelsmann, who put an appeal: “Whistle does not bring you far forward. If you implement things together, it works better.”

Florian Wirtz made the lid on the game with his remarkable free kick to the 3-1 final score. Before the execution, captain Joshua Kimmich came to Wirtz – what did he told the new Liverpool FC player? “To be honest, I don’t know that, too many sayings came from the side. I knew that I just wanted to try it-then I did it,” said the 22-year-old, who saw “more energy on the pitch” for the entire DFB team than with the disappointing 0: 2 defeat in Slovakia on Thursday.