Dumfries earns Dutch draw with Germany
The Netherlands and Germany played out an entertaining 2-2 draw in their Nations League Group A3 match in Amsterdam. Deniz Undav scored on his first start for Germany and Joshua Kimmich got the second for a 2-1 half-time lead after Tijjani Reijnders had put the Dutch ahead 100 seconds into the match. Denzel Dumfries levelled early in the second half in a game with occasional flashes of temper.
Having beaten Bosnia and Herzegovina 5-2 in their opening game, the Netherlands got off to a dream start at the Johan Cruyff Arena. Ryan Gravenberch’s through ball set Reijnders away to tuck the ball beyond the goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen and into the net. Germany levelled in the 38th minute, with Jamal Musiala setting up Undav to score. The visitors then took the lead in first-half stoppage time, Robert Andrich’s long diagonal ball hooked back across goal by David Raum for Kimmich to score.
Five minutes into the second half, the striker Brian Brobbey held off defenders to square for Dumfries to level the game. Julian Nagelsmann’s side squandered three good opportunities to retake the lead as Kai Havertz missed from close range, Undav unsuccessfully tried to chip Bart Verbruggen and Raum headed wide at the back post. Germany stay top of their group on goal difference, with Hungary and Bosnia and Herzegovina playing out a goalless draw in Budapest.
In Group B2, the Republic of Ireland’s Nations League misery continued as Greece emerged from their Group 2 trip to Dublin with a 2-0 win. Fotis Ioannidis and Christos Tzolis were on target to leave the hosts pointless after two matches under the new head coach, Heimir Hallgrímsson.
In Group B1, two Pavel Sulc goals and a Tomas Soucek penalty earned Czech Republic a 3-2 win against Ukraine. Sulc turned Vaclav Cerny’s shot into the net to open the scoring but Vladyslav Vanat headed home Mykola Shaparenko’s cross to level. Sulc restored the hosts’ lead just before half-time. Soucek extended it with a penalty and, while Georgiy Sudakov scored for Ukraine, the Czechs held on to win after losing 4-1 against Georgia in their opener.
Georgia top the group after a 1-0 win against Albania.