Low critical of ‘tired’ Germany despite first Nations League win

Germany head coach Joachim Low was not completely satisfied with his team’s 2-1 victory against Ukraine as they won a Nations League match for the first time.

For the first time in seven attempts, Germany celebrated a Nations League triumph thanks to goals from Matthias Ginter and Leon Goretzka in Kiev on Saturday.

Germany led 2-0 after 49 minutes before Ruslan Malinovskiy’s 76th-minute penalty gave Ukraine hope, but the visitors held on.

After winning for the first time when opening the scoring in 2020, having drawn on the previous three such instances, Low told reporters: “I’m happy that we won the game.

“Before we conceded, we could have been 3-0 or 4-0 up. The penalty was unnecessary. One positive is that we allowed them few chances from open play.

“We did, however, give the ball away too easily on occasion though. They were tired after it went 2-0. We played with some stability tonight.

“When we play with three at the back, we need active players, who tie up the opposition and play passes forward. We played too many long balls in the first half.

“I won’t make many changes to the starting XI against Switzerland if nothing changes.”

Ginter broke the deadlock in the 20th minute when he turned in a cross from Antonio Rudiger, and Goretzka made it 2-0 four minutes into the second half courtesy of a Georgi Bushchan blunder.

Germany defender Niklas Sule gave away a penalty with 14 minutes remaining, and Malinovskiy converted following Ukraine’s minimal threat.

The result snapped Ukraine’s streak of seven successive home competitive wins.

Ginter added: “We are pleased to have won. That’s important for the journey we are on. We weren’t at our best tonight and it was a bit close towards the end. I try to remain ambitious every day and to give my all. I’m pleased that this hard work paid off tonight.

“We lost the ball too often in the first half and made too many sloppy mistakes. We knew that Ukraine would be strong on the break and wanted to avoid this happening. You rarely see so many simple errors in the national team.”