Germany dominated possession and survived some dangerous situations to defeat Hungary 2-0 in the second match of the EURO 2024 group stage. Bayern MunichJamal Musiala of , opened the scoring in the 22nd minute and FC BarcelonaIt’s Ilkay Gündoğan put the match out of reach in the 67th minute.
Germany kept Hungary on their heels, controlling the pace of the match and winning almost every category on the stat sheet. Germany had almost twice as many shots, but Hungary actually created one more big chance than Germany.
Germany has officially booked its place in the round of 16. Germany travel to Frankfurt on Sunday June 23 for the third and final group stage match against Switzerland.
Bayern Munich players thrive again under Julian Nagelsmann
Jamal Musiala weaved his way through the opposition for 70 minutes of high quality. Manuel Neuer made two massive saves from free kicks in the first half that changed the course of the match. Joshua Kimmich was incredible on the right flank and added a goal line clearance to close out the game. Even Leroy Sané overcame his awful performance against Scotland, forcing Hungarian goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi to completely get into position to prevent him from scoring in the 75th minute.
At 36, Nagelsmann is on his fourth major coaching mission. Most importantly, he is clearly learning from his experiences and getting this German team to play at an elite level.
Kai Havertz is the new Timo Werner
Werner is an attacking player who has a unique ability to frustrate the defense, get behind the backline and win one-on-one chances. After making a name for himself in the Bundesliga by scoring double-digit goals over several seasons, Werner moved to Chelsea but failed to take his game to the next level in the Premier League.
Now swap Havertz for Werner and everything is still true.
In this tournament team, Havertz’s role is to occupy the central defenders to create more space for Florian Wirtz and Jamal Musiala. He does a great job as a decoy, but the German midfielder also creates solid opportunities for Havertz. In the 11th minute, Havertz made his way through the box to hit the goalkeeper.
The real crux of the problem: Defenses don’t fear Havertz. On the other hand, Niclas Füllkrug dragged the entire Hungarian defense with him to create acres of space for Gündoğan in the middle of the area.
Hungary’s ‘bend but don’t break’ tactic was effective, but not enough
Scotland went 5-4-1 against Germany in the EURO 2024 opener, trying to crowd the midfield and play a high line. Scotland went into half-time with a 3-goal deficit and were forced to play with ten men.
Hungary sat much deeper and did a decent job of reducing space all over the pitch. On both goals, Germany managed to move the defense outwards and quickly return a dangerous and unexpected ball to the center of the field.
The Hungarian strategy was largely effective and would have been applauded had they scored from the aforementioned free kicks in the first half.