Germany pulled off an excellent comeback to edge Netherlands to a thrilling 2-1 victory on Tuesday night thanks to strikes by Maximilian Mittelstadt and Niclas Fullkrug, following Joey Veerman's opener.
Die Mannschaft, who dropped to their lowest world ranking (16th) since 2006 after a dreadful 2023, came into the bout off the back of their best result and performance of the Julian Nagelsmann era, beating France 2-0 in Lyon last weekend, and followed it up with another impressive showing in Frankfurt.
The visitors dominated the majority of the play across the 90 minutes, but wasteful finishing came back to bite them as the hosts clinched a late winner from a header that, at first sight, looked to have been kept out by Bart Verbruggen, but goalline technology intervened to confirm that the ball had crossed the line.
Germany began the match on the front foot, having nearly all the ball in the opening couple of minutes, but it was the visitors who drew first blood with just their first foray into the German box. Memphis Depay teed up Veerman, who strode onto the ball and guided it into the bottom corner with Marc-Andre ter Stegen rooted to the spot.
Left-back Maximilian Mittelstadt, who made his international debut on Saturday against Les Bleus, was caught out in the build-up to the match opener but more than made up for his error just seven minutes later, unleashing an absolute thunderbolt into the roof of the net from Germany's first corner of the game to level proceedings.
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The equaliser appeared to have dissolved the tension around the stadium, and Germany began to dominate possession again, while the Dutch struggled to get a kick leading up to the half-hour mark following their concession.
As the match approached the break, the Netherlands began to sit back and play on the counter-attack, and they almost regained the lead when Daley Blind delivered a tantalising free kick to the far post, which Matthijs de Ligt nodded across goal for Donyell Malen, who looked poised to score before Ilkay Gundogan nicked the ball off his toe.
The Oranje improved over the final minutes of the half, matching the Germans for effort and creativity and would likely have been the happier of the two sides as the teams headed down the tunnel at the interval.
At the onset of the second half, it was predominantly the visiting team dictating play, calmly moving the ball and looking for openings, with Germany struggling to find their rhythm following the break.
It was Ronald Koeman's side that got the first big chance of the second period from a corner that found its way to Malen, who blasted a shot at the target from the edge of the box that Ter Stegen had to palm down before gathering.
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However, similar to the first half, it seemed as though after conceding the first big chance of the half, Germany sprung back into action, as Florian Wirtz delivered a threaded pass to Jamal Musiala, who, unfortunately for the hosts, lost control at the critical moment, allowing Verbruggen to come out and make the claim.
The Dutch continued to create the better chances and should have regained the lead at the hour mark after Malen chased down what seemed like a lost cause and took Ter Stegen on a walkabout before setting up Depay on the six-yard box, but the Atletico Madrid forward lashed his shot wildly over the crossbar.
As it turned out, the failure to convert their chances proved to be costly for the visitors.
Nagelsmann brought on Fullkrug for the final quarter of an hour, and that proved to be a stroke of genius, as the Borussia Dortmund man looked sharp from the moment he entered the pitch and rose highest to meet a Toni Kroos corner in the last five minutes of regulation time to complete the comeback, sending the fans in Frankfurt into raptures.
The Oranje pushed in vain for an equaliser in the final knockings, but the Germans managed to shut up shop to secure their second win of 2024.
Both nations have two games left before the European Championships get underway, both in June, with the Germans set to face Ukraine and Greece, while the Dutch will host Canada and Iceland.
Devesh Jaganath
