Niclas Füllkrug on Jamal Musiala and Florian Wirtz: “Germany will have a lot of fun with them in the future”

Speaking after Germany’s 5-0 win against Hungary in their opening game of the Nations League, Niclas Füllkrug commented on the team’s performance.

Füllkrug opened the scoring for Germany in Düsseldorf last night when Jamal Musiala played the ball to him for an easy tap-in. This was the beginning of the rout as in the second half, Germany, but more specifically, Musiala, turned on the style and goals from the Bayern forward as well as Florian Wirtz, Aleksander Pavlovic and Kai Havertz resulting in an impressive performance. 

On the importance of the game, Füllkrug commented: 

“It was the first game after the EUROs, and a home game as well. The Nations League is an interesting competition because of the quality of opposition. Hungary have made it difficult for us time and time again in the last few years, but we were able to carry the excitement from the EUROs with us and are pleased to have made the fans happy by getting the win. It is really fun playing there upfront with Musiala and Wirtz. Germany will have a lot of fun with them in the future as well. We were able to create a lot of space in behind and make runs in behind meaning that we were able to build a good, varied approach in attack.”

The win was the beginning of a new era for Germany after the retirements of Manuel Neuer, Thomas Müller, Ilkay Gündogan and Toni Kroos after EURO 2024. This saw Marc-André ter Stegen finally become Germany’s number one, Pascal Groß replaced Kroos while Havertz was dropped into the role that Gündogan inherited in the summer, which allowed Füllkrug to start in Düsseldorf.

Germany’s next game will be a big test as they travel to Amsterdam to face the Netherlands in their final game of the international break. The Dutch also scored five last night as they beat fellow Bosnia and Herzegovina 5-2. 

GGFN | Jack Meenan