Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann acknowledged that his team became frustrated and panicked during Monday’s international friendly against Ghana’s Black Stars in Stuttgart.
A late strike from Deniz Undav secured a 2-1 victory for the four-time world champions, giving Germany back-to-back wins during March’s international break, following a thrilling 4-3 win over Switzerland.
Nagelsmann praised the team’s overall performance but admitted impatience cost them at times. “The game started brilliantly from our perspective. If we maintain our tactical discipline, things go really well. We then became impatient because we were so desperate to score,” he said. “That led to too much freestyle play, and then we became too vulnerable to counter-attacks.”
Germany had another chance to extend their lead when Florian Wirtz struck midway through the game, only for VAR to rule out the goal due to an offside by Nick Woltemade.
“We should have scored two or three goals in the first half. In my opinion, we played better than against Switzerland,” Nagelsmann added.
Reflecting on the equalizer from Ghana, the former Bayern Munich coach admitted: “The team sometimes makes things difficult for itself. It’s good that we always want to score, but it’s also enough if we score late. It’s just as important that we don’t concede two or three goals because we get caught on the counter-attack. The equalizer was far too easy; we shouldn’t concede that.”
Germany are drawn in Group E of the World Cup alongside Ghana’s neighbors Ivory Coast, debutants Curacao, and Ecuador, setting the stage for a potentially thrilling group stage showdown.
