LUXEMBOURG \u2013 Nick Woltemade scored a brace to send a sluggish Germany past Luxembourg 2-0 away and within touching distance of direct World Cup qualification.<\/p>\n
Both of Woltemade\u2019s goals came after halftime, with Germany struggling against their underdog opponents, ranked 97th in the world.<\/p>\n
The victory puts Germany on track to qualify directly for next year\u2019s tournament in North America, AFP reported.<\/p>\n
Germany are level on points but ahead on goal difference of second-placed Slovakia, who beat Northern Ireland 1-0 at home in the parallel fixture.<\/p>\n
The top two face off in Leipzig on Monday in the final group stage match, with Germany guaranteed direct qualification by avoiding defeat.<\/p>\n
Before the match, Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann backed Woltemade to be decisive and the big Newcastle striker made the difference for the visitors.<\/p>\n
After scoring the only goal in a win over Northern Ireland in October, his first in international football, the 1.98-metre-tall Woltemade delivered again for a Germany side missing attackers Kai Havertz, Jamal Musiala, Niclas Fuellkrug, Tim Kleindienst and Karim Adeyemi.<\/p>\n
A Germany return failed to spark Liverpool midfielder Florian Wirtz, who blasted over the bar in the opening half and struggled to make an impact on the game.<\/p>\n
Without a point from their opening four group stage fixtures, Luxembourg had the better chances in the opening half while injury-hit Germany lacked fluency.<\/p>\n
Home winger Daniel Sinani chopped just wide with 21 minutes gone and forced a desperation save from a corner on the half-hour mark.<\/p>\n
A visibly frustrated Nagelsmann stormed down the tunnel at halftime and his side reacted early in the second half, Woltemade breaking through four minutes after the break.<\/p>\n
Leroy Sane, playing his first match for Germany since moving to Galatasaray in the summer, cut a pinpoint cross into Woltemade\u2019s path from the right, and the Newcastle striker tapped home.<\/p>\n
Sane was key in Woltemade\u2019s second with 69 minutes gone, sending the ball centrally from the right to Ridle Baku, who slid the ball for Woltemade to slice home.<\/p>\n
Substitute Felix Nmecha had a long-range effort tipped over the post in stoppage time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LUXEMBOURG \u2013 Nick Woltemade scored a brace to send a sluggish Germany past Luxembourg 2-0 away and within…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":571934,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5310],"tags":[2000,299,1824],"class_list":{"0":"post-571933","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"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115553532838100836","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571933","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=571933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/571934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=571933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=571933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=571933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}