2-1 to Portugal on Wednesday<\/a>, Germany fell 2-0 to France in front of 51,313 spectators at the MHPArena in the third-place final thanks to goals by Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 (45\u2019) and Michael Olise (84\u2019).<\/p>\nIt is the first time Germany has lost two games in a row in the Julian Nagelsmann era since November 2023, when his team were defeated by T\u00fcrkiye (3-2) and Austria (2-0). Granted, the level of opponents was different this time around, but still, there is a risk this could be considered a setback.<\/p>\n
Perhaps it is best to view the two games separately. The performance against Portugal was, without a doubt, the worst since November 2023. Germany had a few good moments, took the lead, and then, after Nagelsmann made the changes, stopped playing football.<\/p>\n
Against France, it was a bit different. Germany completely dominated the guests in the first half, and it was only thanks to a brilliant moment by Mbapp\u00e9 that France took the lead into halftime.<\/p>\n
“We talked a lot about the first game,\u201d national team captain Joshua Kimmich said after the game. \u201cI think we showed what we’re capable of in the first half today, that we’re able to react.\u201d So, what was missing? \u201cWe simply weren’t good enough in front of the goal,\u201d Kimmich said, but then he quickly urged the public not to overreact. \u201cOverall, we simply can’t lose patience so quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nick Woltemade, Pascal Gro\u00df (both 2\u2019), then Niclas F\u00fcllkrug and Leon Goretzka (5\u2019) tested Mike Maignan early on. Finally, in the sixth minute, Karim Adeyemi forced a fantastic save from Maignan as well. Adeyemi then had a penalty overturned in the 35th minute.<\/p>\n
And France? In the 43rd minute, Mbapp\u00e9 had his first good moment in the box and scored with a fantastic, curled effort. It was a brilliant individual moment that highlighted the difference between the two teams.<\/p>\n
German national team head coach Julian Nagelsmann will have to draw the right conclusions from his … More team’s back-to-back defeats in the UEFA Nations League final tournament. (Photo by Stefan Matzke – sampics\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Getty Images<\/p>\n
Our attacking players like Karim Adeyemi and Nick Woltemade still need to mature at this level; unfortunately, our finishing quality wasn’t good today,\u201d Nagelsmann said after the game. \u201cWe must create chances, but we also have to finish them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, Nagelsmann believed that more was possible on Sunday. “Given the chances and the course of the game, France’s win was undeserved,\u201d Nagelsmann said. \u201cWe should have taken the lead based on our chances, but we have to put the ball over the line ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Is Nagelsmann right? Germany certainly had long sequences in which they were better. Die Nationalmannschaft also had 56% possession, had an xG of 2.55 compared to France\u2019s 2.33, and fired 20 to 15 shots on goal. Germany was also unlucky that Deniz Undav\u2019s equalizer was called back\u2014an argument can be made that F\u00fcllkrug, who was bleeding out of his mouth, was fouled by Adrien Rabiot and not the other way around.<\/p>\n
All that doesn\u2019t matter; unlike previous national team encounters between the two nations, it was France who was more efficient with its chances. An issue that already plagued Die Nationalmannschaft against Portugal on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
So, what is the fix? \u201cIn the end, you have to win against a top team when you create so many chances,\u201d Nagelsmann said. \u201cWe played very attractively and created many chances. But part of football is also taking advantage of those chances.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Nations League certainly has the potential to get there. Woltemade, especially, is a striker with enormous potential. But he also showed that he needs more experience at this level. The same can be said about Adeyemi.<\/p>\n
There is also the good news that two of Germany\u2019s most dangerous players weren\u2019t available: Jamal Musiala and Kai Havertz. Florian Wirtz, in particular, seemed ineffective at times without his congenial partner Musiala in the attack. Indeed, the Bayern forward might not be as impactful as Wirtz, but he is more chaotic, and that was lacking for Germany this week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Niclas F\u00fcllkrug looks on disappointed during Germany’s defeat to France in the UEFA Nations League … More third…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168284,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5310],"tags":[2000,299,36,1824,57563,21740,3046,6574],"class_list":{"0":"post-168283","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-france","11":"tag-germany","12":"tag-julian-nagelsmann","13":"tag-nagelsmann","14":"tag-portugal","15":"tag-uefa-nations-league"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114649238398335922","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Germany](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/1749408430_114_960x0.jpg\")
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