Germany head coach Julian Nagelsmann has admitted his side panicked at times after being frustrated by the Ghana Black Stars during their international friendly in Stuttgart on Monday evening.
A late strike from Deniz Undav handed the four-time world champions a hard-fought 2-1 victory, sealing back-to-back wins in the March international break after earlier defeating Switzerland 4-3.
Nagelsmann revealed that while Germany started strongly, their impatience allowed Ghana to grow into the game through dangerous counter-attacks.
“The game started brilliantly from our perspective. If we maintain our tactical discipline, things go really well. We then became impatient because we were so desperate to score,” he said.
“That led to too much freestyle play, and then we became too vulnerable to counter-attacks.”
Germany thought they had doubled their advantage when Florian Wirtz found the net midway through the match, but the goal was disallowed after VAR ruled Nick Woltemade offside in the buildup.
Nagelsmann insisted his team created enough chances to win more comfortably but lacked efficiency in the final third.
“We should have scored two or three goals in the first half. In my opinion, we played better than against Switzerland,” he added.
He also warned against Germany’s defensive lapses, despite their attacking intent.
“The team sometimes makes things difficult for itself. It’s good that we always want to score, but it’s also enough if we score late. It’s just as important that we don’t concede two or three goals because we get caught on the counter-attack. The equaliser was far too easy; we shouldn’t concede that.”
Looking ahead, Germany will compete in Group E of the World Cup, where they will face Ivory Coast, debutants Curaçao, and Ecuador.
