The Germany national team are still waiting for their first win in the new UEFA Nations League competition. The 2014 World Cup winners lost 3-0 to the Netherlands in Amsterdam in their second group game, leaving them third in Group A1 with one point.
In front of a crowd of 50,000 at the Johan-Cruyff-ArenA, Oranje captain Virgil van Dijk (30), Memphis Depay (87) and Giorgino Wijnaldum (90+3) scored the goals for the hosts, who are now second with three points behind France. With relegation to League B looming, Die Mannschaft are under pressure to get a result against Les Bleus in Paris on Tuesday.
“We can’t criticise ourselves much,” said Mats Hummels after the final whistle. “We’ve lost 3-0 in a game that, in my opinion, we should have won. It was a case of not taking our chances.” Captain Manuel Neuer agreed: “We created some chances and should have scored one or two goals. It could have been a different story tonight, anyone can see that.”
Five Reds in starting XI
With Neuer, Hummels, Jérôme Boateng, Joshua Kimmich and Thomas Müller, there were five Bayern players in Joachim Löw’s starting line-up. The visitors looked to control the game from the off and had the first notable chances of the game through Timo Werner (15) and Müller (18). The Netherlands showed them how it’s done on the half-hour mark when they took the lead with their first opportunity, van Dijk heading home a corner.
The Dutch could’ve extended their lead before half-time with Ryan Babel, Wijnaldum and Depay all missing chances, while Müller struck the side-netting at the other end.
In the second half, Germany pushed for the equaliser but Hummels along with substitutes Julian Draxler and Leroy Sané failed to convert their chances. Depay was then denied by Neuer in the 76th minute but 11 minutes later, he got his goal before Wijnaldum added insult to injury in the third minute of stoppage time.
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