On Friday, Germany defeated Bosnia and Herzegovina 2-1 to move one step closer to the Nations League quarterfinals as the 10-man Netherlands salvaged a 1-1 draw in Hungary. Deniz Undav scored twice in the victory.
After thirty minutes in Zenica, Florian Wirtz of Bayer Leverkusen laid in a backheel for Undav’s opener.
The attacker from Stuttgart then made it two when he headed home a cross from Maximilian Mittlestaedt.
With twenty minutes left, Edin Dzeko, a 38-year-old former forward for Manchester City, scored his 67th goal for his country, giving Bosnia a response.
“After they scored, things heated up a bit, but we controlled things confidently,” Undav, making just his second international start, told German broadcaster RTL.
The win moves Germany onto seven points from three games, two ahead of the Netherlands with the heavyweights facing each other on Monday in Munich.
“We scored too few goals for the number of chances we had,” said Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann.
A minute of silence was observed at the Puskas Arena in Budapest, Hungary, by both Dutch and Hungarian players, as well as spectators, in honour of the late Johan Neeskens, 73, who was a legend in his own right.
Roland Sallai gave Hungary the lead in the 32nd minute with a close-range strike after Zsolt Nagy set him up.
For Hungarian coach Marco Rossi, who was leading the national team for the 69th time, it was the ideal way to begin the match.
