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Germany’s national team returned home early Sunday morning from a 2-1 Nations League win in Ukraine and hope their first success in the event will boost morale for Tuesday’s date with Switzerland and beyond.
The 2014 world champions were far from glorious in Kiev, but goals from Matthias Ginter and Leon Goretzka calmed everyone’s nerves a bit.
“Wins are like glue; wins are important,” said coach Joachim Low.
Low, 60, has come under increasing criticism after Germany failed to hold the lead in the previous three games of the year, drawing 1-1 with Spain and Switzerland in the Nations League last month, and 3 -3 with Turkey in a friendly midweek.
But Low said he was “looking at the bigger picture” as he continues to reshape the team and has his sights set on the Euro 2020 tournament, which has been moved to 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“We know what we are doing,” insisted the coach.
Low made nine changes after Turkey’s game with players from Champions League winners Bayern Munich who returned alongside key midfielder Toni Kroos.
But Germany was a waste and also gave away too many balls in the first half, before having to break a sweat at the end after Ukraine, with little force, recovered a penalty from Ruslan Malinovskyi after a clumsy challenge from Niklas Suele.
Nor did it go unnoticed that the first goal came from defense, with Antonio Ruediger preparing Ginter, and that Goretzka’s second was given by goalkeeper Georgiy Bushchan.
“We passed the line tonight and finally we have the three points,” forward Serge Gnabry said, prompting the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper to say on Sunday: “You may have to be satisfied with this right now.”
Ginter confirmed this by saying: “We’re glad we won. That’s important for the journey we’re on. We weren’t at our best tonight, and it was a bit near the end.
Germany now have five points in their group, two behind leader Spain, where they play in the November final along with a home game against Ukraine, still with a chance to win the group and reach the final of the Nations League of the next year.
The players were due to recover on Sunday before Monday’s only training session for the match against Switzerland in Cologne, where only 300 fans will likely be allowed in, such as against Turkey, due to coronavirus restrictions.
“I won’t make many changes to the starting lineup against Switzerland if nothing changes,” Low has already promised.
