{"id":571234,"date":"2025-11-15T03:59:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-15T03:59:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/571234\/"},"modified":"2025-11-15T03:59:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-15T03:59:10","slug":"germany-on-brink-of-world-cup-qualification-after-win-against-luxembourg-slovakia-beats-northern-ireland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/571234\/","title":{"rendered":"Germany on brink of World Cup qualification after win against Luxembourg; Slovakia beats Northern Ireland"},"content":{"rendered":"

Germany forward Nick Woltemade scored twice in the second half to give the four-time world champion a hard-earned 2-0 win over Luxembourg in its penultimate FIFA World Cup 2026 qualifier on Friday, leaving it on the brink of automatic qualification.<\/p>\n

Woltemade, who has now scored his team\u2019s last three goals after also netting the winner in its 1-0 victory over Northern Ireland last month, put the visitor in front in the 49th minute with the Germans surprisingly on the back foot for much of the first half.<\/p>\n

The Newcastle United striker added another in the 69th to keep Germany top of Group A on 12 points, with Slovakia, its next opponent on Monday, in second place on goal difference.<\/p>\n

Julian Nagelsmann\u2019s team lacked any real punch up front in the first half while littering the pitch with defensive errors that allowed Luxembourg to carve out several scoring chances.<\/p>\n

Germany, however, will now punch its ticket for next year\u2019s World Cup, co-hosted by Canada, Mexico and the United States, with a win or a draw in Monday\u2019s final qualifier against the Slovaks.<\/p>\n

ALSO READ | Croatia qualifies for FIFA World Cup 2026 after beating Faroe Islands 3-1<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

The group winner earns automatic qualification while the second-placed team goes into playoffs in March.<\/p>\n

Slovakia snatches victory over Northern Ireland<\/b><\/p>\n

Slovakia\u2019s Tomas Bobcek scored in stoppage time to seal a dramatic 1-0 win over Northern Ireland on Friday after two VAR disallowed goals, with both sides clinching at least a playoff spot.<\/p>\n

Slovakia had two second-half goals chalked off after VAR reviews at Kosice Football Arena before Bobcek bundled in the ball from a corner kick with goalkeeper Bailey Peacock-Farrell well out of his net in the 91st minute, sending the home fans into raptures.<\/p>\n

It was third time lucky. The home side had celebrated what it thought was its first goal in the 55th minute when Lukas Haraslin won a free kick and fired a low shot into the net, but Milan Skriniar was offside and interfered with Peacock-Farrell.<\/p>\n

There were more roller-coaster emotions 10 minutes later when David Strelec got a touch on Haraslin\u2019s free kick to guide it into the far corner of the net, but VAR determined it came off Middlesbrough striker\u2019s arm.<\/p>\n

Northern Ireland, which had Daniel Ballard sent off in the 99th minute, hosts last-placed Luxembourg on Monday. <\/p>\n

Published on Nov 15, 2025<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Germany forward Nick Woltemade scored twice in the second half to give the four-time world champion a hard-earned…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":571235,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5310],"tags":[2000,299,1824,160177,181273,181276,181275,181274,181277,181278,181281,181280,181279],"class_list":{"0":"post-571234","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-germany","11":"tag-germany-vs-luxembourg","12":"tag-germany-vs-luxembourg-news","13":"tag-germany-vs-luxembourg-results","14":"tag-germany-vs-luxembourg-score","15":"tag-germany-vs-luxembourg-updates","16":"tag-slovakia-vs-northern-ireland","17":"tag-slovakia-vs-northern-ireland-news","18":"tag-slovakia-vs-northern-ireland-results","19":"tag-slovakia-vs-northern-ireland-score","20":"tag-slovakia-vs-northern-ireland-updates"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115551716196060252","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571234","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=571234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/571235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=571234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=571234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=571234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}