The national team wins in Bosnia-Herzegovina thanks to a mature performance over long stretches. There is still some bad news for national coach Nagelsmann.
Julian Nagelsmann left the dilapidated Bilino Polje stadium shortly before midnight “already satisfied overall”. After the 2-1 (2-0) on Friday evening in Zenica against Bosnia-Herzegovina, the German national football team flew back to Germany with even fewer personnel, but also with the certainty that it would be possible without half of the starting eleven. The next tough test in the Nations League against arch-rivals Holland awaits on Monday (8.45 p.m./RTL) in Munich. It doesn’t get any easier.
Nagelsmann’s long injury list
Chris Führich is now number eight on the long list of players that the national coach currently has to do without. The 26-year-old winger from VfB Stuttgart was only substituted in the final phase, but then suffered a muscle injury. Bayern professional Aleksandar Pavlovic, who did not play against Bosnia due to problems with his left leg, is also injured. “Pavlo has a small knee bruise,” said Nagelsmann. “We have to make sure everyone is healthy by Monday.”
Due to the absences of, among others, regular goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen, Jamal Musiala, Niclas Füllkrug and Kai Havertz, three professionals were able to celebrate their debut in Zenica: goalkeeper Alexander Nübel and striker Tim Kleindienst in the starting line-up as well as substitute Jonathan Burkardt. “Made the debut, won, the evening couldn’t have gone better,” said Kleindienst on RTL. The Gladbach striker also hit the goal, but was offside.
Deniz Undav’s strong form
Instead, the goalscorer was Stuttgart’s Deniz Undav, who scored goals two and three in his fifth international match. “It is extremely difficult to defend because it has such a low center of gravity,” said Nagelsmann. Leverkusen’s Florian Wirtz prepared the first goal very well when he accepted a pass from Robert Andrich in the penalty area, but did not shoot the ball on goal himself, but instead passed it to Undav. With a professional with so much understanding of the game in the squad, multiple failures are easier to absorb.
A small break came into play when Nagelsmann made a triple substitution in the second half. Shortly afterwards, the connecting goal came from Bosnia’s veteran star Edin Dzeko. The national coach noted that positional loyalty was “no longer perfect,” but he also pointed out the “tightrope walk” between an aggressive game for the third goal and securing the result.
A win for the quarterfinals
Thanks to the 1-1 draw in the Dutch game against Hungary, the starting position for Monday is clear: with a win, Germany will reach the new quarter-finals of the tournament in March. The goal is to take part in the final tournament of the best four nations in June 2025. “Bottom line: job done, three points, done what we set out to do,” said Andrich. Kleindienst said: “In the end we are absolutely capable of beating the Netherlands. We are playing at home, which is also something special.”
Source: Stern
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