Turkey hand Germany first defeat under Nagelsmann
Germany suffered their first defeat under Julian Nagelsmann on Saturday night as Turkey ran out 3-2 winners at the Olympiastadion.
| Julian Nagelsmann. | Photo: GEPA Pictures/PICTURE POINT/Sven Sonntag/Pool via PICTURE POINT |
Tonight's match against Turkey at the Olympiastadion in Berlin was supposed to be the next step forward, but instead of building on last month's performances, Germany slipped to a disappointing 2-3 defeat.
Remarkably, Nagelsmann opted to start attacking midfielder Kai Havertz at left-back, and the move appeared to pay immediate dividends as the Arsenal star opened the scoring after just five minutes, slotting home after good work from Leroy Sané on the right.
However, Germany failed to capitalize on their early lead and found themselves trailing 1-2 at the break. Ferdi Kadioglu and Kenan Yildiz scored Turkey's first-half goals in very similar situations, both given plenty of space on the left and finishing clinically.
Much like the first half, Germany came out firing after the break and found the equaliser in the 49th minute when Niclas Füllkrug coolly finished at the near post after being picked out by Florian Wirtz.
But Turkey regained the lead in the 71st minute when Yusuf Sari scored from the penalty spot after a VAR review adjudged Kai Havertz to have handled in the box.
Germany never really managed to put Turkey under pressure in the rest of the game, and the visitors held on for the win.