Germany win in Nations League as 10-man Dutch rescue point

Deniz Undav scored twice as Germany defeated Bosnia and Herzegovina 2-1 to edge closer to the Nations League quarter-finals on Friday as 10-man Netherlands rescued a 1-1 draw in Hungary.

Bayer Leverkusen’s Florian Wirtz laid on a backheel for Undav’s opener after 30 minutes in Zenica.

The Stuttgart forward then made it two when he turned in Maximilian Mittlestaedt’s cross.

Bosnia hit back with 20 minutes remaining when 38-year-old former Manchester City forward Edin Dzeko headed in from a corner for his 67th international goal.

“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.

At the Puskas Arena in Budapest, Hungary and Dutch players, as well as spectators, observed a minute’s silence in memory of former Netherlands great Johan Neeskens who passed away this week at the age of 73.

Hungary took the lead in the 32nd minute when Roland Sallai scored with a close-range finish after being teed up by Zsolt Nagy.

It was the perfect start to the game for Hungarian coach Marco Rossi who was taking charge of the national team for the 69th time.

– ‘We were going to score’ –

Hungary were looking at defeating the Dutch in the teams’ first meeting since they were mauled 8-1 in 2013.

That prospect brightened when Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk was red-carded in the 79th minute.

However, four minutes later, the Dutch made a mockery of their one-man disadvantage when Denzel Dumfries headed in a free-kick from Cody Gakpo.

“Even with ten men, we tried to put pressure forward,” said Netherlands coach Ronald Koeman. “I did think we were going to score.”

Wales squandered a 2-0 lead to draw 2-2 with Iceland in Reykjavik.

Tottenham’s Brennan Johnson, scoring for the seventh consecutive game for club and country, and Harry Wilson gave Craig Bellamy’s team a comfortable 2-0 lead at the break but Iceland hit back in the second half.

Substitute Logi Tomasson cut the deficit in the 69th minute before Wales goalkeeper Danny Ward allowed a 72nd minute drive from the same player to bounce off his elbow and into the net.

“In the long run, I’m really happy. And this is not me trying to sugar-coat drawing after being 2-0 up, it really isn’t,” said Bellamy.

“What I’m telling you now I told the players. This was really good.”

In the same group, Turkey defeated Montenegro 1-0.

Elsewhere on Friday, Sweden let slip a 2-0 lead to draw 2-2 in Slovakia, a result which left both teams on seven points from three games but with the Swedes ahead on goal difference in their group.

Yasin Ayari and Ken Sema had Sweden 2-0 up after 32 minutes in Bratislava but Slovakia battled back for a point thanks to a brace from David Strelec.

Tomas Chory scored twice to give the Czech Republic a 2-0 home win over Albania.

The Czechs are level on six points with pool leaders Georgia who lost 1-0 to Ukraine thanks to Mykhailo Mudryk’s 35th-minute cool finish. (BSS/AFP)