Speaking after Germany’s 2-1 win against Greece in their final warm-up game before EURO 2024, head coach Julian Nagelsmann has maintained his support for number one Manuel Neuer.
Neuer’s mistake allowed Greece to open the scoring in Mönchengladbach after he failed to keep hold of the ball. Earlier in the week, the 38-year-old also had a less-than-inspiring performance against Ukraine. Speaking to RTL (via @iMiaSanMia), Nagelsmann continued to back Neuer: “I won’t let any discussion arise, even if everyone tries to start one”
Earlier on in the day, it was announced that Alexander Nübel would be the player sent home as Nagelsmann looked to cut down his 27-man squad to the required 26. Nagelsmann confirmed this during the game against Greece.
In the second half, Germany improved greatly and equalised through Kai Havertz. Before Pascal Groß came off the bench to score the winner in the 89th minute. On the game, Nagelsmann said: “The second half was significantly improved compared to the first. For the first time in a long time, we had simple ball losses in the first half, played far too slowly and far too much through the center. I mentioned this clearly at half-time. We simply needed more sharpness in all actions to win this game. In the second half, we brought both wings into play in order to open rooms in the middle.”
Now, for the next week, Germany will have to work on ironing out the issues that they have experienced against Ukraine and Greece as when they face teams who are better than their warm-up friendly opponents in the group stages, Scotland, Hungary and Switzerland, then they could be exposed to a greater degree.
Germany’s next game is on Friday, in Munich against Scotland in the opening game of EURO 2024.
GGFN | Jack Meenan
