After overwriting the previous record holder in the history of the men’s UEFA Nations League by beating Ukraine 8-0 recently, League A Group 3 victors Germany come to a close in Hungary on Tuesday evening.
Nagelsmann’s team sealed top spot in their group after thrashing Bosnia-Herzegovina 7-0 at the weekend while Hungary will finish third as they were also hammered 4-0 by the Dutch.
Most probably, a defeat of Bosnia-Herzegovina would have been sufficient to guarantee Germans first in their Nations League group, in addition to which Nagelsmann’s team had already reached the quarter-final round of the competition with two games remaining in the group stage.
However, the relentless Mannschaft was not going to leave anything to chance in Freiburg, where Florian Wirtz and Tim Kleindienst bagged two goals apiece, and Kai Havertz, Jamal Musiala, and Leroy Sane also scored to help pen two chapters in the book that is the Stadion Europa Park.
While/tab In addition to humiliating a beaten-and-abused Bosnia-Herzegovina 9-1, the Germans went on to record the most comprehensive victory in the entire history of the Nations League senior men’s international football tournament /and one might have thought it possible that they could have scored even more goals in the 9-1 humiliation they inflicted on their startled visitors on Saturday.
The flip side of the weekend’s victory is that Germany will be in the knockout stage of the Nations League for the first time – they have been unable to reach the Finals in all the previous three attempts – and many a benchmark is being set by Nagelsmann’s youngsters for the 2026 World Cup.
For the first time since March 2022, when now-Barcelona manager Hansi Flick was in charge, the 2014 world champions may win four straight games in all competitions. They are currently riding high on a three-game winning streak.
Germany's crushing loss to the Netherlands on Saturday guaranteed that they would finish in the bronze medal position, thus their Hungarian visitors will need to compete in a promotion/relegation playoff to keep their top-tier status as they prepare to compete in the quarterfinals next summer.
Marco Rossi's team let up two first-half penalties to Cody Gakpo and Wout Weghorst after coach Adam Szalai had a severe medical issue. He has subsequently assured supporters that he is recovering. Denzel Dumfries and Teun Koopmeiners then added some gloss to the scoreline.
The Magyars will not be immediately demoted to League B due to the Germans' crushing of Bosnia-Herzegovina, but they will need to defeat a League B runner-up in a two-leg playoff next spring in order to stay in the top division.
Although Rossi's team has avoided defeat in both of their home games thus far, most recently holding the Netherlands to a respectable 1-1 draw, their lone noteworthy success in this year's tournament is a 2-0 victory away from relegated Bosnia-Herzegovina.
But back in September, Germany destroyed Hungary 5-0 thanks to five goals from five different scorers. Having already defeated the Magyars at Euro 2024, Die Mannschaft might now defeat the hosts three times in a row for the first time in 50 years.
