For the first time in history, Germany has lost a World Cup qualifier away from home. On Thursday, Die Nationalmannschaft was defeated 2-0 by Slovakia in Bratislava.
For the first time in history, Germany has lost a World Cup qualifier away from home. On Thursday, Die Nationalmannschaft was defeated 2-0 by Slovakia in Bratislava thanks to goals by David Hancko (42’) and David Strelec (55’). It was also Germany’s first-ever defeat to Slovakia.
The result also questions the country’s recent resurrection under Bundestrainer Julian Nagelsmann. Germany, after all, lost both games in the UEFA Nations League finals and has now recorded just one win from the last six games.
Somehow since the 3-3 draw against Italy, Nagelsmann’s Germany has lost its magic. In that game dominated for 45 minutes, leading 3-0 at halftime, only to throw the game away. Then defeats to Portugal (2-1) and France (2-0) in the UEFA Nations League finals followed.
Today’s performance, though, was in many ways the worst of the six. Despite having 70% possession, Germany was slow and sluggish in the final third. Indeed, without Jamal Musiala and Kai Havertz, the attack seemed to lack any sort of inspiration.
Things weren’t much better in the back, where Feyenoord winger Leo Sauer had a field day overrunning the left flank over and over again. Nagelsmann’s reaction was to hook debutant Nnamdi Collins at halftime when, in reality, the problem seemed to be the overall setup.
“We lost the ball way too easily, we didn’t have control of the game,” Germany defender Jonathan Tah said. It was a deserved loss and a very bad performance from us today. This is not our ambition and not what we expect of ourselves. We must be honest. It’s tough to explain the reasons now directly after the game. We must do much better immediately in the next game.
