As the September 2025 international break draws to a close, Get German Football News is pleased to supply a piece covering both of the German national team’s 2026 World Cup qualifying fixtures. Julian Nagelsmanns Nationalmannschaft were able to shake off an embarrassing defeat to Slovakia on Friday and rebound with a 3-1 win over Northern Ireland on Sunday night in Köln. The story of the second match and player ratings can be found below.
After that, it’s time to undertake a tactical review of both matches. The result means that Nagelsmann’s job appears safe for now, but there’s plenty to suggest that October will serve as the 38-year-old’s last stand. Moreover, German enthusiasm for this team or its coach doesn’t exactly trend upwards following this break. Most of the enthusiasm in the Bundesrepublik revolves around the fact that it’s time to get back to our beloved club football now!
A strong enough start
One had to hand it to Nagelsmann’s crew for doing well to break up Northern Irish build-up play early and really throwing themselves into the midfield duels. This led to some energetic early counters. Within five minutes, the hosts were deftly penetrating the penalty area. Nick Woltemade, Florian Wirtz and Serge Gnabry all played a role in the first promising incursion in the 5th minute.
Gnabry polished off the 1-0 in the 7th off the very next counter. Woltemade ended up collecting the assist. Much of the misery from Friday night (observed in greater detail below) was – for a brief moment – completely “counter”-balanced. Beautiful stuff from the Jungs. More kick-ass counters and creative play in the box through and past the quarter-of-an-hour-mark.
Failure to net the 2-0
Northern Irish “triple teaming” of Nick Woltemade didn’t exactly help matters. On several occasions as the half-hour-mark approached, the DFB-XI got the ball to Woltemade in a promising position. Naturally, the Irons would have been totally insipid to allow Newcastle’s new €90m signing to work with the ball on touches and turns. Woltemade simply couldn’t get shot off.
Jamie Leweling’s work from the right wingback slot also left much to be desired. Woltemade sometimes didn’t get useful crosses from Leweling’s side. Over on the left, David Raum was only slightly better. Determined defending from Michael O’Neill’s men – not to mention plenty of courage in the midfield duels – steadily shifted the momentum.
The equalizer and its aftermath
Sustained pressure from the guests from the Isle between the 30th and 33rd led to a series of corners; all of them coming off Antonio Rüdiger. One of Friday night’s certified flops (also observed below), just couldn’t launch the ball clear. Isaac Price stuffed home a Justin Devenny service for the 1-1 in the 34th. Brief German attempts to mount a response quickly gave way to lethargy.
Faint whistles from the Kölner crowd became a full chorus of boos by the time the opening half officially drew to a close. Nagelsmann’s men displayed very nervous body language and began getting very jittery with their passing. The guests easily halted German approach play by intercepting tentative passes before anything particularly dangerous could develop.
Familiar problems until….
The second 45 didn’t exactly begin in the most promising fashion. More inaccurate crossing from Leweling and Raum. Northern Ireland nearly capitalized on a 52nd-minute corner to take the lead. The Germans continued to lack both pace and audacity in their build-up-play. The introduction of Nadiem Amiri and Maximilian Beier for Gnabry and Woltemade in the 61st spiced things up a bit.
A nice double effort from Raum and Pacal Groß in the 63rd at least demonstrated some intent. One minute later, Waldemar Anton hit the post off a free-kick. Four minutes after that, Wirtz did well to test Northern Irish keeper Bailey Peacock-Farrell. After what was a generally strong performance over the course of the evening, Peacock-Farrell fumbled a Raum cross onto the feat of the onrushing Amiri in the 69th.
2-1.
Wirtz added his own set-piece gem in the 72nd and the 3-1 enabled all observers to confidently proclaim “game over”. Nagelsmann ensured that his Jungs played it conservatively from that point forward. The team that had found themselves jeered down as they headed into the locker room were handed a round of applause from the Kölner crowd.
DFB Player Ratings
Oliver Baumann (7) – Antonio Rüdiger (4), Waldemar Anton (6), Robin Koch (7), – Jamie Leweling (5) Joshua Kimmich (6), Pascal Groß (6), David Raum (5) – Serge Gnabry (6), Florian Wirtz (8) – Nick Woltemade (6)
Substitutes: Nadiem Amiri (7), Maximilian Beier (5), Leon Goretzka (5), Jonathan Tah (-),
GGFN Player of the Match: Florian Wirtz (8)
Germany’s gem picked a fine night to demonstrate some resiliency. Flo did more than any other German actor on the pitch to keep the momentum rolling from open play. His 73rd-minute 3-1 sealed the deal. Lovely dead-ball service from the new Liverpool mega-signing. Wirtz curled the ball over the wall and into the top left-hand corner. That’s absolutely the way it’s done! In total, Wirtz recorded two shots on target and assisted on three more.
Wirtz peeled off a total of four long dribbles in an effort to shake his team out of their torpor. The 22-year-old’s ground duel rate (47%) and passing rate (87%) shouldn’t be discounted because they were comparatively low. If anything, both those stats reflected the fact that Wirtz was willing to take risks. The same can’t be said of many of his colleagues during the slower and sleepier spells.
DFB Tactical Review
As painful as it may be for a German to do this, Friday night’s match must be re-visited first. Do forgive a denizen of the Bundesrepublik if he finds himself rushing through it at times. It’s almost as if the Bundestrainer set us up for failure. It simply isn’t in Nagelsmann’s nature to construct a straightforward set of tactics. This seemingly simple 4-2-3-1 remains quite deceiving.
Lineup—DFB (Friday)
As best as the author could tell, Nagelsmann wished to utilize the speed of Maxi Mittelstädt and Nnamdi Collins via a pseudo-wingback deployment. Angelo Stiller and Joshua Kimmich took turns dropping into the back three as “pivot runners” in possession. In principle, this should have worked well as Kimmich remains a natural defender and Stiller always worked well as a sweeper.
In practice?
Whenever former FC Köln man Ondrej Duda nearly humiliates your country two minutes into a match, one can tell that it’s going to be a long evening. To be fair, the manner in which the possession game was supposed to work did yield some promising approach play during the first half. This didn’t disguise the fact that the DFB-XI looked consistently shaky at the back.
The Slovaks took a more-than-well-deserved lead in the 41st. Were it not for Oliver Baumann and the post, the Repre could have easily taken a 3-0 lead into the tunnel. Apart from the above-mentioned fluid attacking combos (and there really weren’t many more than two or three), the forward movement mostly looked like erratic crapola.
Any improvement after the break?
Three minutes worth. David Raum replaced the wholly ineffective Nnamdi Collins and Maxi Mittelstädt switched over to the right-hand-side. This ultimately had the effect of decreasing Mittelstädt’s usefulness. Leave it to Nagelsmann to undercut what was the opening 45’s best performer! At least Rüdiger (by far the opening 45’s worst performer) got a fire lit under his posterior in the locker room.
Rüdiger, along with Wirtz, played a part in the very pretty charge in the 48th that nearly saw Leon Goretzka equalize. Defensively, however, the Real Madrid man appeared as shaky as ever. It came as no surprise to see the Slovaks double their advantage in the 55th. It seems a mite harsh to say that our Jungs “quit” over the course of the next 40 minutes, but they certainly weren’t brave.
Sloppy passing. Desperate long balls. Total lack of alertness at the back. More than a few German observers – who don’t generally turn off the match when their team is struggling mightily – surely choked on their own spit or outright threw up in their own mouthes. It was genuinely pitiful. Shades of Jogi Löw’s autumn 2020 team haunted us.
Any positives at all?
Aside from Mittelstädt’s strong first half and a few nice moments of fight from Kimmich, not really. Goretzka’s finishing on a pair of occasions in which he got a chance in almost made viewers wish to get out of their seats. Nick Woltemade’s finishing, on the other hand, led to nothing but resigned slouches. Nadiem Amiri (introduced at the hour-mark) also supplied headache-inducing finishes both off a dead ball and from open play.
What did Nagelsmann try to change?
We’ll accord the Bundestrainer some credit for lining everyone up in a more straightforward 3-4-3. Oftentimes, as the graphic below attempts to convey, it looked more like a tight-axis 5-4-1. Five changes on the personnel front. Anton, Groß, Raum, Leweling and Robin Koch replaced Mittelstädt, Goretzka, Stiller, Collins and Jonathan Tah.
Interesting that Nagelsmann opted to bench some of his better players and give the weaker links a quick second chance. Okay. Benevolent and generous coaching. Since it didn’t end up backfiring, the Bundestrainer looks like an effective leader. If they had indeed lost tonight, however, we’d be discussing a different story.
Lineup—DFB (Sunday)
The constellation did its job in terms of disrupting the opponent’s build-up play and generating quick counters. Wirtz and Gnabry took advantage of the fact that Woltemade drew so much coverage early, then seemed to forget that they probably shouldn’t be making him the focal point of the attack for precisely that reason. The fact that Raum and Leweling were stationed so far back did adversely affect their crossing and shooting. Plenty of time for the Northern Irish to see what was coming.
Insofar as the author could tell, the introduction of Beier (for Woltemade) and Amiri (for Gnabry) didn’t lead to any major tactical switch. The same applied when Goretzka eventually relieved Groß. Amiri’s goal came courtesy of a blunder, but there was enough quality in the chances preceding it to make it feel deserved. Wirtz’s sublime piece of skill quickly decided a game that was genuinely on a knife’s edge until the 69th minute. Let’s not forget that….or maybe let’s just forget the whole thing.
Will we be doing a report card piece?
Hell, no! The one delivered for the senior men’s national team during the March break covered some interesting material.It’s also always just plain fun to score the U21s. The German women just plain out deserved it. This latest incarnation of the German Nationalmannschaft wasn’t all that interesting or fun. It’s questionable whether or not they deserve much of anything. The general consensus among Germans is one of relief. Thank goodness we don’t have to worry about watching the national team for another month.
Julian Nagelsmann’s latest presentation couldn’t even sell out the RheinEnergieStadion. In general over the past view years, following the German national team has become something more akin to an irritating obligation. Of course, of has to do it. One has to get it over with. Sort of like all these nostalgia-driven legacy sequels popping up at the movies these days. Just go out and see it. Get it over with so that one can be part of the conversation. Have the conversation. Forget about the movie. Move on.
Uh.
Thank God it’s over!
