It was far from pretty for the German national team in their 2-0 World Cup qualifying win at Luxembourg to stay top of group A in European qualifying. Julian Nagelsmann was faced with a handful of injuries to his regular squad on top of the extended absence of Jamal Musiala and Karim Adeyemi was also unavailable due to having to serve a suspension for yellow card accumulation from previous qualifiers. Neither Joshua Kimmich nor Nico Schlotterbeck were 100% fit either and were both unused subs on Germany’s bench and it was clearly evident that some of the usual stability in the squad was missing.
Luxembourg had a free hit in a way since their hopes of qualifying for the World Cup were already over and they shone quite well for themselves, especially in the first half where they, more than once, forced keeper Oliver Baumann into action. FC Augsburg’s Aiman Dardari was particularly troublesome for the German defense and had the beating of Jonathan Tah and Waldemar Anton more than once and came close a handful of times. Had any of the striker’s attempts beaten Baumann, the rest of proceedings could have unfolded a lot differently.
Both of Nick Woltemade’s goals (49’, 69’) sort of came against the run of play – if you even want to call it that. Germany never really had a strong foothold on the match and lacked any sort of real organization to the point where they looked like they were going to march on and open up the floodgates, really creating some goal difference seperation over group A’s Slovakia.
After the match, Nagelsmann was more than well aware that the performance from his side was well off of their normal standards but was pleased to come away with three points – that’s the most important takeaway on what an otherwise underwhelming evening. “The three points are the most important thing today. In the end football is a results sport. But in the first half we didn’t get off to a good start. It took us long to get into our rhythm. Luxembourg had chances and actually should’ve taken the lead. In the second half we were much better, had more control, scored two goals and deservedly won the game. We take the three points,” the former Bayern Munich, RB Leipzig and Hoffenheim manager stressed (via @iMiaSanMia).
Germany are level on points with Slovakia in qualifying group A, but they have a +3 better goal difference, so a win over their group rivals in Leipzig stamps a place in the World Cup, as would a draw. Nagelsmann will likely have some injury boosts if Kimmich and Schlotterbeck are both available for that last qualifier, which can hopefully help translate to a much stronger overall performance.
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