Deniz Undav brace sends Germany to victory against Bosnia
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Germany's forward Deniz Undav (left) fights for the ball with Bosnia and Herzegovina's midfielder Benjamin Tahirovic, in Zenica.
PHOTO: AFP
ZENICA – Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann was just “satisfied” after a brace from Deniz Undav clinched a 2-1 win against Bosnia and Herzegovina on Oct 11, putting them one win away from the Nations League quarter-finals.
The forward’s goals came in six first-half minutes in Zenica.
Nagelsmann believes that “we scored too few goals for the number of chances we had”.
“Overall I am satisfied with the performance,” he said. “We did not allow too many counter-attacks. We maybe had too few goals for the dominance we had.
“But we had to see how much we want to go for a third goal, after conceding one, and having made some substitutions. And we also had to think about the game on Monday (against the Netherlands).”
The coach also said that VfB Stuttgart midfielder Chris Fuhrich would not be available for the Group A3 clash in Munich, having picked up a muscle injury after coming on as a substitute.
Bayer Leverkusen’s Florian Wirtz laid on a back-heel for Undav’s opener after 30 minutes and the Stuttgart forward made it two when he turned in Maximilian Mittelstadt’s cross shortly after.
Backed by a sell-out crowd of 13,500, Bosnia hit back with 20 minutes remaining when veteran former Manchester City forward Edin Dzeko headed in from a corner, but Germany held on to win.
“After they scored, things heated up a bit, but we controlled things confidently,” Undav told Germany’s RTL network.
Wirtz said that Germany “made things a little bit difficult for ourselves”, and like Nagelsmann he felt that “we could have definitely scored a few more goals”.
“But we didn’t let much in, which we can be happy with,” he added.
Wirtz also said the match against Ronald Koeman’s Dutch side “should be a similar affair... against the Netherlands is always something special, but also a bit tough – we’re looking forward to it”.
In other matches, Wales squandered a 2-0 lead to draw 2-2 with Iceland in Reykjavik.
Tottenham Hotspur’s Brennan Johnson, scoring for the seventh consecutive game for club and country, and Harry Wilson gave Craig Bellamy’s team a comfortable 2-0 lead at the break but Iceland hit back in the second half.
Substitute Logi Tomasson cut the deficit in the 69th minute before Wales goalkeeper Danny Ward allowed a 72nd-minute drive from the same player to bounce off his elbow and into the net.
In the other Group B4 game, Turkey defeated Montenegro 1-0.
Elsewhere, Sweden let slip a 2-0 lead to draw 2-2 in Slovakia, a result which left both teams on seven points from three games but with the Swedes ahead on goal difference in Group C1.
Yasin Ayari and Ken Sema had Sweden 2-0 up after 32 minutes in Bratislava but Slovakia battled back for a point thanks to a brace from David Strelec. AFP, REUTERS
