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Niclas Füllkrug (middle) after his goal

Photo: Kai Pfaffenbach / REUTERS

Three days after the victory in France, the German national soccer team achieved its next success. The DFB team won 2-1 (1-1) against the Netherlands on Tuesday evening in Frankfurt am Main. The Dutch took the lead early on through Joey Veerman (4th minute). Germany's left-back Maximilian Mittelstädt, who had made a mistake before conceding the goal, equalized the game with a dream goal in the eleventh minute. Niclas Füllkrug scored late to win (85th).

National coach Julian Nagelsmann's team showed an appealing performance, especially in the first half, then allowed themselves a phase of weakness before getting stronger at the end and pushing for the second goal. The team now has two test matches left against Ukraine and Greece at the beginning of June before the first game of the home European Championship against Scotland on June 14th.

Julian Nagelsmann relied on the same starting eleven as in the victory in France, while Netherlands coach Ronald Koeman made seven changes after the 4-0 friendly win against Scotland. The Netherlands' changes didn't do any harm, at least at the beginning - the guests took the lead after just four minutes. But this was less due to his own combination play than to a mistake by Germany's left-back Mittelstädt, whose back pass to Jonathan Tah was played so poorly that Memphis Depay was able to win the ball. Depay lobbed into the middle to the free-standing Joey Veerman, who volleyed to take the lead (4th minute).

The DFB team wasn't unsettled despite the early deficit, but despite having a lot of ball possession, there were initially no chances. Nevertheless, the quick equalizer was achieved: Jamal Musiala received the ball after a corner from Toni Kroos, passed it to Mittelstädt, who then shot from around 18 meters and hit the left corner (11th). The left-back from VfB Stuttgart quickly made amends for his mistake; after the goal, Peter Schilling's goal anthem “Major Tom,” which many fans had demanded, was played.

Netherlands is getting stronger

The DFB team then played extremely well on the ball, the midfield with Kroos, Robert Andrich, Musiala, Florian Wirtz and İlkay Gündoğan seemed well-coordinated, and Germany restricted the quite passive Dutch at the back. However, the DFB team hardly created any chances and when they did, they were carelessly missed, as was the case with Gündoğan's weak finish in the penalty area, which was parried by keeper Bart Verbruggen (18th).

The Netherlands almost managed to take the lead again in the first half when central defender Matthijs de Ligt headed the ball into the middle after a free kick. But Gündoğan just cleared it in front of Donyell Malen, who was ready to take a shot (33').

In the second half, the German team's combination play faltered, and instead the Netherlands became stronger and stronger. After a counterattack, Tijjani Reijnders shot in the penalty area, but acted too hectically and missed the attempt (57th). Shortly afterwards, just like at the beginning of the game, Mittelstädt played an inaccurate back pass, this time to Marc-André ter Stegen. Malen intervened and passed it to Memphis Depay, whose shot went just over the goal (61').

It was only late in the game that Germany became more dangerous again; Musiala failed with a shot past the strong keeper Verbruggen (75'), as did substitute Thomas Müller shortly afterwards (82').

Füllkrug did better, scoring with his shoulder after a corner (85'). The hit was checked for a long time because the ball was just behind the line.

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