They had to hold on for what was a bit too close for comfort, but Germany beat Bosnia and Herzegovina 2-1 away from home in the UEFA Nations League thanks to a first half brace from VfB Stuttgart’s Denis Undav. The attacker now has three goals from his last two matches for Die Mannschaft.
However, Julian Nagelsmann certainly would have been concerned with the late concession of the two-goal cushion when Fenerbache’s Edin Džeko scored in the 70th minute to make it a nervy closing twenty minutes for Germany.
Both Undav and Serge Gnabry also had goals ruled out for offside decisions in the second half, either of which would have effectively killed the match and further dampened any hope of a comeback from the home side.
With 74% of the possession when all was said and done and out-shooting Bosnia 12 to 8, Nagelsmann felt that his side should have shown more from their dominance despite coming away from home with a win. “We didn’t start so well and kept the ball on one side too much in the first ten minutes. When we adjusted that, it was good and we were dominant. Given our superiority, we could have scored more goals. Regarding the goal we conceded, Edin Dzeko shouldn’t be that free inside the box. But the team kept control after that. We didn’t want to take many risks,” the former Bayern Munich, RB Leipzig, and Hoffenheim manager explained to RTL after the match (via @iMiaSanMia).
Of course, it should be taken into consideration that Nagelsmann was not exactly spoiled for choice with his team selection and his starting eleven was far different from what it looked like just a few months ago at the European Championships on home soil.
In addition to all of the injury absentees that were not originally called up to camp ahead of the pair of Nations League matches, all of Benjamin Henrich, David Raum, Robin Koch, Kai Havertz, and Jamal Musiala had to pull out of the squad through injury problems. Nagelsmann did not have a lot of his usual suspects and regulars, so he is forced to work with what he currently has and will be pleased to collect yet another win at the end of the day.
