Niclas Fullkrug snatched a scrappy winner as Germany defeated the Netherlands 2-1 to complete a promising international break for Julian Nagelsmann’s side.
Having seen off France 2-0 on Saturday, the Euro 2024 hosts added another notch on their belt in Frankfurt.
They had to come from behind to take out Ronald Koeman’s men, who took a fourth-minute lead through Joey Veerman. Maximilian Mittelstadt responded with a sweetly-struck effort from a corner routine and both teams had chances to take the lead before Germany snatched the win five minutes from time.
It was far from a clean finish, substitute Fullkrug steering the ball towards the far post and marginally over the line as Bart Verbruggen scrambled to make a save rendered moot by VAR.
The visitors grabbed the lead with their first meaningful break into opposition territory, Memphis Depay spotting the chance to open the door.
He spotted Veerman’s run and picked his pass, with the PSV Eindhoven collecting the ball and slotting home carefully for his first international goal.
The early setback could have knocked the home side off course but instead they got themselves back on level terms in quick time. Mittelstadt, fresh from an encouraging debut against Les Bleus, showed no trace of reticence as he collected a short corner from Toni Kroos and bent an ambitious strike handsomely into the top corner.
Having restored parity, Germany soon looked the sharper side but when Ilkay Gundogan and Robert Andrich took the chance to pull the trigger their efforts failed to worry Verbruggen.
Netherlands’ Wout Weghorst, left, celebrates with his team-mate Joey (Peter Dejong/AP)
The Dutch absorbed plenty of pressure before going close at the other end, Mathias de Ligt glancing Daley Blind’s ball across goal as Donyell Malen failed to apply the finishing touch.
Germany had controlled most of the first half but looked vulnerable again five minutes into the second, Malen this time getting a solid connection but still unable to beat Marc-Andre ter Stegen.
Koeman’s side continued to grow, winning a handy free-kick that Blind squandered and then working Tijani Reijinders into a good position which came to nothing as he cleared the crossbar.
The game was open enough for either side to make a decisive move but chances continued to come and go. With an hour gone Depay missed from close range after a smart recovery from Malen and Mittelstadt’s hopes of adding a second were ended by Verbruggen’s near-post stop.
As the substitutes began to flow, Chris Fuhrich stood out from the crowd with a dashing run through the visiting defence and a through-ball that just escaped Kai Havertz.
Jamal Musiala and Thomas Muller kept the Netherlands pinned back with efforts on goal and Verbruggen’s resistance was finally ended when they Germans won it in scrappy fashion.
With five minutes remaining Fullkrug rose to meet Kroos’ corner, bundling the cross goalwards from 10 yards and just squeezing the ball over the line despite the goalkeeper clawing it back on the dive.
'I will keep fighting' - Ten Hag adamant he is the right manager for Man Utd
Erik ten Hag insists that he is the right man for the job at Manchester United despite their 4-0 thrashing at the hands of Crystal Palace on Monday.
Michael Olise netted twice against a sorry United team at Selhurst Park, with Jean-Philippe Mateta and Tyrick Mitchell also getting on the scoresheet.
It is the first time that Palace have done the double over the Red Devils in the Premier League, as United extended their winless run on the road to five games.
There has been a lot of speculation over Ten Hag’s future following a disappointing second campaign in charge, with just one year left on his contract.
Asked if he was the right manager for United, he told Sky Sports: "Absolutely. If the right players are there and available, we have a good squad, but are missing the whole backline – we had problems.
"I will keep fighting. I prepared the team in the best way I could do. It was not good enough, by far – I have to take responsibility for that. But I will find energy and prepare them for Sunday’s game.
"At the end of the day, I have to do it with the players who are available. All season, we have huge [injury] problems. Many times we have sorted it out. Today we didn’t."
United have struggled with injury problems all season, with Harry Maguire and club captain Bruno Fernandes joining the lengthy list of players missing against Palace.
Ten Hag highlighted the lack of defensive options at his disposal but did not make excuses for the poor performance, adding: "It’s clear and obvious – this is underperforming. It’s not good enough. We are very disappointed in this. Our fans were behind us all the way – we should have kept fighting like the fans did.
"There are always reasons. Everyone sees our backline, we have huge problems, but at the end of the day we have to deal with it – we should have done better than we did.
"We know [how damaging it could be], but we have nine points to play, so we have to fight for the nine points."
Man Utd thrashing a 'big statement' but Palace are not surprised, says Eze
Eberechi Eze says Crystal Palace's 4-0 thrashing of Manchester United is a "big statement" but insists there should be little surprise that it happened.
Micheal Olise scored twice as Palace ran riot against the sorry Red Devils at Selhurst Park on Monday.
Jean-Philippe Mateta and Tyrick Mitchell also got in on the act as Palace sealed their first league double over United.
Palace have now won four of their last five Premier League games, with Oliver Glasner having turned the tide in the past few weeks.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Eze said: "It says a lot, it's a big statement, but we're not surprised.
"We know what we're capable of, we know what we can do. The quality we've got in the dressing room is high – we don't see it as a surprise. We know what we came here to do today, it worked.
"You can see we’re creating chances, we're not worried about what's going on behind us. We're attacking, pressing, we're aggressive – we're going to continue to create chances for sure."
Also speaking to Sky Sports, Glasner said: "Congratulations to the team. I think in the first half, we didn't play as well as we could, but we were very efficient and scored very nice goals.
"At half-time, we made some adaptations, and the second half was much better. We created a lot of chances, scored some nice goals, and it's a great win.
"We know we have quality when we get our players in situations to score a goal.
"Good players, a good team spirit, but we must always stay humble. It's not so long ago we were struggling [in a relegation battle]. We are doing well, but we have a lot to improve."
This was Palace's biggest Premier League win since beating Leeds United 5-1 in April 2023, while it also marked their biggest on home soil in the competition since a 5-0 victory over Leicester City in April 2018.
Udinese 1-1 Napoli: Struggling Bianconeri grab last-gasp home draw
Napoli were held to a 1-1 draw at relegation-battling Udinese in Serie A on Monday after a stoppage-time goal by forward Isaac Success cancelled out a Victor Osimhen header.
Osimhen nodded home to give Napoli the lead in the 51st minute after Matteo Politano sent a lofted cross from the right into the middle of the box, and the Nigerian striker headed the ball in off the left post.
The Nigerian thought he doubled their advantage in the 80th minute, but his effort was ruled out for offside, before Success bundled in the leveller in stoppage time, netting from a Thomas Kristensen header.
Napoli moved up to eighth on 51 points from 35 games and are nine points behind both fifth-placed Atalanta and Roma, in sixth.
Data Debrief:
Osimhen is the third Napoli player to score in six matches in a row against a single team in Serie A in the three-points-for-a-win era, after Gonzalo Higuain against Lazio between 2013 and 2016 and Dries Mertens against Bologna between 2016 and 2019.
Despite fighting back to earn a point, Udinese have now failed to win three games under a new manager for the first time since August-September 2010 under Francesco Guidolin.
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