In the extremely difficult 2-0 win in Luxembourg, only a few players in the DFB jersey were convincing – returnee Leroy Sané and keeper Oliver Baumann were among them. The individual criticism.
Goal
Oliver Baumann: I probably wouldn’t have dreamed that he would be able to excel so often against this opponent – but he acted absolutely flawlessly and ironed out the mistakes of his front men on several occasions. Significantly: The Hoffenheim player had about as many ball contacts as Nick Woltemade and Serge Gnabry combined.
Defense
Ridle Baku: Instead of holding the right wing and making the game wide, he further condensed the midfield. This made him difficult to play against during the build-up. But he improved after the change and prepared the second goal very well.
Jonathan Tah: For the first time in his international career, he led the DFB team onto the field as captain – and looked anything but confident. His back pass towards Baumann in the 35th minute almost had serious consequences, as the keeper just saved.
Waldemar Anton: Again and again with bad positional errors – and the Stuttgart player lacked any sovereignty in other respects. He was also weak when playing from the back and made too many bad passes.
David Space: He always had problems with Olivier Thill on his left side of the defense, and this time there was absolutely nothing coming from him going forward either.
midfield
Leon Goretzka: Started the game badly and picked up a yellow card after half an hour after a rude foul in midfield. Later he was very close to being sent off, but the national coach “saved” him with a substitution.
Aleksandar Pavlovic: Quite flawed in the passing game, but also with really good moments – like his opening pass to Leroy Sané, who took the lead.
Leroy Sane: The returnee with Baumann was already the best in the embarrassing first half and shone afterwards when he scored both goals. He should definitely have fought his way back into the squad, even though he is not in the attention of the national coach at Galatasaray.
Serge Gnabry: Two shots in the first half, both of which were too imprecise – then he dived and was substituted early: one of his weakest international games ever.
Florian Wirtz: Hardly ever got into dangerous finishing positions, lost a lot of balls and kept dribbling. Overall, little to nothing happened for him either – no performance that could give him self-confidence for his difficult time in Liverpool.
attack
Nick Woltemade: A complete stranger in the first half hour, to top it off he accidentally blocked a dangerous shot from Serge Gnabry. And then he actually becomes the match winner with two goals – because he kept pushing and didn’t let himself get discouraged.
Substitute
Felix Nmecha came on for Goretzka in the 54th minute – and played significantly better than his predecessor. Very present and strong in running, shortly before the end he was unlucky with a long-range shot that Luxembourg keeper Anthony Moris parried brilliantly.
Kevin Shame replaced Gnabry in the 66th minute, got stuck a few times, but was very busy.
Jamie Leweling came in the 79th minute – but could not follow in the footsteps of his competitor Sané on the right wing.
Malick Thiaw was also allowed to play from the 79th minute onwards, Tah replaced him. In the final phase, Luxembourg’s resistance was already broken.