It could be said that the third time was the charm for Germany. After harvesting two draws against Spain and Switzerland, the German team found their way to victory in the Nations League against Ukraine (1-2) that ended up putting them in trouble.
The truth is that the team led by Joachim Löw was superior to its rival, but a gift from Süle in the form of a penalty allowed Ukraine to close the gap and put emotion in the final minutes.
As an anecdote, in Kiev ‘Die mannschaft’ won the first triumph in its history in the Nations League, since in the previous edition it ended with a zero victory record.
Gnabry, as soon as he started, made the intentions of the German team clear with a long shot that went just wide. Germany was looking for the rival goal and found the goal in a play that ended with a connection between centrals.
Rüdiger recovered inside the area, looked for space on the wing and threw a low cross that Ginter was in charge of holed.
The goal encouraged Germany, who enjoyed several occasions to extend their advantage. Real Madrid player Kroos, on the edge of half-time, tried from afar, but shot too high.
As the second half started, Goretzka headed in for second on the scoreboard, a goal that overly relaxed the 2014 world champion.
Ukraine clung to the game and closed the gap with the penalty transformed by Malinovskyi, however it remained one goal away.
1 – Ukraine: Bushchan; Karavaev, Zabarnyi, Mykolenko, Sobol; Kovalenko (Shaparenko, m.77), Sydorchuk (Makarenko, m.84), Malinovskyi; Yarmolenko (Marlos, m.69), Yaremchuk and Tsygankov (Zubkov, m.69).
2 – Germany: Neuer; Ginter; Süle, Rüdiger; Klostermann (Can, m.90), Kimmich, Kroos, Halstenberg; Draxler (Werner, m.79), Goretzka; and Gnabry (Havertz, m.93).
Goals: 0-1, m.20: Ginter. 0-2, m.49: Goretzka. 1-2, M.77: Malinovski.
Referee: Orel Grinfeld (Israel). He admonished Malinovsky, Kroos and Ginter
Incidents: League of Nations match played at the Olympic Stadium in Kiev before 25,573 spectators.