Berlin (AFP)

Four days after making an excellent impression against Argentina (2-2), the young German team, quickly reduced to ten, struggled Sunday to win 3-0 in Tallinn against Estonia in Group C qualifications of Euro-2020.

The victory, gained in the second half thanks to a double from Manchester City midfielder Ilkay Gündogan and a goal from Timo Werner, allows the quadruple world champions to return to the Netherlands at the top of the group.

The Mannschaft, who won the first leg 8-0, gave themselves a handicap of entry, with the exclusion of the central back of the Juventus Emre Can (14th), for having mowed Frank Liivak at the entrance from the surface.

But at 10 as at 11, the Germans showed in the first period of a lack of tempo, aggression and imagination totally unexpected. Before the break, the Estonian goalkeeper had only one parry to perform, on a distant shot of the neo-international Luca Waldschmidt (25th). And Reus placed a free-kick on the corner of the crossbar (40th).

In front, the Baltic attackers created several dangerous situations, even if Liivak or Konstantin Vassiljev were clumsy in their last gesture.

- Gundogan, the man of the day -

With a bit of luck, Germany ended up freeing themselves in the second half, thanks to a Gündogan double, whose two shots were deflected in goal, unintentionally by Marco Reus (1-0, 51st) and then by a Estonian defender (2-0, 57th).

The same Gündogan then offered a superb long diagonal to Werner, who scored the third goal (3-0, 71st).

Without many injured executives, including Toni Kroos and Leroy Sané, Germany has had to happen in the last minute of his new star Serge Gnabry (muscle problem), sparkling this season with Bayern Munich and against Argentina in Wednesday friendly (a goal, a assist, 2-2).

Before the match, the atmosphere was weighed down by a new beginning of controversy around players of Turkish origin of the Mannschaft. Gündogan and Emre Can "liked" on Instagram a photo of Turkish national team players saluting after their victorious goal on Friday against Albania.

Faced with reactions on social networks, they quickly removed their "Likes" by claiming to have had no political intention. But the German Federation (DFB) assured that it would have "a conversation" with both players after the match.

© 2019 AFP