In the opening match of the World Cup qualifiers, Germany was stunned in a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Slovakia. Historically, the loss will be remembered as Germany\u2019s first away loss in a World Cup qualifier. Germany controlled possession early, but struggled mightily with Slovakia\u2019s quick dribbling and movement, especially in 1v1 situations. In the 42nd minute, left back D\u00e1vid Hancko flew forward and was on the receiving end of a cross from D\u00e1vid Strelec. In the 55th minute, Strelec followed up his first half heroics with an impressive curler to put the game on ice.<\/p>\n
Jersey Swap: <\/strong>D\u00e1vid Strelec<\/p>\n Earlier this week, Strelec was a \u00a36.5M deadline transfer to Middlesbrough from Slovan Bratislava. Today, he was the national hero, getting behind Antonio R\u00fcdiger for the game-winning assist and breaking the defender\u2019s ankles to put the game out of reach with a beautiful goal in the second half. Strelec\u2019s fearless attitude resonated throughout the Slovakian squad and they were rewarded with an impressive upset victory.<\/p>\n Der Kaiser: <\/strong>Oliver Baumann<\/p>\n Baumann\u2019s two big saves in the first half kept the match close, but the Hoffenheim goalkeeper was unable to prevent two goals from screaming past him and he was still outplayed by his Slovakian counterpart, Martin D\u00fabravka, who produced the five saves necessary to hold the clean sheet.<\/p>\n Fu\u00dfballgott: <\/strong>Joshua Kimmich<\/p>\n Kimmich spent a lot of the first half trying to find a forward pass but there was zero movement, possibly by design. He still managed a 97% passing rate, went three-for-three on long balls, and was a force on the defensive end. Ultimately, Kimmich can do all of these same things from the right back position if that introduces a better midfielder or attacker onto the starting XI.<\/p>\n Der Bomber: <\/strong>Florian Wirtz<\/p>\n The entire offense was a non-factor for most of this game. After a quiet first half, Wirtz picked up the pace a little bit and brought some creativity to the game. It would have been nice to see Germany recover at least one goal late in the game but never really found a decent opportunity.<\/p>\n Wirtz is better suited to roam the central midfield but Julian Nagelsmann is severely limited in his options at winger. This would potentially open up some space for Nick Woltemade to make things happen as well.<\/p>\n Meister of the Match: <\/strong>Maximilian Mittelst\u00e4dt<\/p>\n The rest of the defense was absolutely abysmal. The Slovakians abused Germany\u2019s right flank in the first half and could have scored even more goals. David Raum replaced a struggling Nnamdi Collins, switching Mittelst\u00e4dt to the right side. Unfortunately, Slovakia just started attacking Germany\u2019s left flank instead. Mittelst\u00e4dt finished the match with four clearances, two tackles, a blocked shot, an interception, and won three ground duels. It is very depressing that Mittelst\u00e4dt was the best German player tonight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the opening match of the World Cup qualifiers, Germany was stunned in a 2-0 defeat at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":398439,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5310],"tags":[70201,2000,299,129072,1824],"class_list":{"0":"post-398438","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-bayern-munich-match-awards","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-german-national-team-and-international-soccer","12":"tag-germany"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115148520440187203","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398438","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=398438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}