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The German team’s winless series has come to an end, even if the extremely weakened Nations League duel with Ukraine was embarrassingly again to the end.
By Christian Hornung
After another lackluster performance, national coach Joachim Löw’s team happily defeated Gasteber 2-1 (1-0) in front of 17,573 spectators, and at least remains on course in the Nations League.
“The stars in the sky weren’t exactly playing”
Striker Matthias Ginter admitted in an interview with Sportschau: “You rarely see so many turnovers from a German team, Ukraine was actually just waiting for them. We didn’t play against the stars in the sky.”
His teammate Serge Gnabry said: “It was a step forward that we finally saved the thing eventually, but we should have decided earlier. With one more attacking player we would certainly have been a little easier combining up front.”
Löw admitted: “With 2-0 the opponent was already playing tired, and even after 2-1 we had the opportunity to make it all clear. It was good that we were stable defensively and the opponent really didn’t have much of a chance.” allowed to exit the game “.
Gnabry tip only
There is no doubt: anything but this mandatory victory would have been a complete disgrace: Ukraine had to face 14 (!) Failures, mainly due to Corona, on Wednesday (October 7, 2020) Andrei Shevchenko’s team conceded a defeat 7-1 against France.
Judging by this, the star team of national coach Joachim Löw seemed extremely fearful: on the bench sat, for example, Kai Havertz, Julian Brandt, Luca Waldschmidt and Timo Werner, Serge Gnabry played the only real top.
The DFB team was clear in the first round that in times of crisis since the failure of the 2018 World Cup, almost all automatisms have been lost. With a veritable avalanche of unnecessary turnovers, Germany invited the hosts to counterattack several times, had to gasp a lot afterwards, but was always lucky and a sovereign Manuel Neuer, who was rarely really challenged.
Defenders combine 1-0
The German leadership came out of nowhere and curiously neither the forward nor the midfielders were involved, but rather the trio of the three-man defensive chain. Through Niklas Süle, the ball went to Antonio Rüdiger, who, by a standard, stayed in front like his teammates. Rüdiger went down the right with a class start towards the baseline, landing hard in the center, where Matthias Ginter in the center forward position made a hard flat for 1-0 (20th).
Then Ginter nearly made it 2-0 for a quarter of an hour, but a cross from Gnabry failed to beat Ukrainian substitute goalkeeper Georgiy Bushchan, who reacted well.
Goretzka uses the Bushchan bug
In the second round, Germany returned to the field with the same tactically questionable orientation, but acted with a little more vehemence in the opening phase. The 2-0 at 48 minutes, the rival also helped a lot: Bushchan let slip a Lukas Klostermann cross from his hands, Leon Goretzka, who was pale until that moment, was very careful and headed the gift over the line from short distance.
Julian Draxler should have made it clear in the 52nd minute, but failed to pass the ball to Bushchan from eight meters. Also in the 57th minute, the Ukraine goalkeeper showed that he had absorbed his mistake before the 2-0 draw and led a Klostermann volley after a pass from Draxler over the bar.
Süle creates tension
At this stage, it seemed that the German team would take things home quite relaxed. But when Roman Yaremchuk escaped from the back three, Süle stopped him in the penalty area: Ruslan Malinovskyi gave Neuer no chance a quarter of an hour before the end.
So the last quarter of an hour against the cheeky outsider was actually a tremendous game. Gnabry could have put an end to the coach’s concerns in the 82nd minute, but Bushchak directed his shot around the right post.
Werner for Draxler
Positive: Unlike previous international matches, Löw did not succumb to his reflex this time to switch defensively and give the opponent the signal to be even braver. Along with Werner, he provided little relief for Draxler and later brought Havertz back as well, so the narrow lead at the finish line was shaken.
The DFB team continues next Tuesday (13.10.20) with the Nations League match against Switzerland. Löw announced: “This time there won’t be many changes to the starting XI.”
Those: sportschau.de
