Sané sees red as Nagelsmann's Germany lose again
Leroy Sané was shown a straight red card as Julian Nagelsmann's Germany lost 2-0 to Austria, suffering their second straight defeat.
After an embarrassing 3-2 loss to Turkey on Saturday, Germany's woes continued on Tuesday night as the Euro 2024 hosts went down 2-0 to Austria in Vienna.
Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann made three changes to the side that lost to Turkey, with Mats Hummels, Leon Goretzka and Serge Gnabry coming in at the expense of Benjamin Henrichs, Joshua Kimmich and Florian Wirtz.
The changes didn't have the effect Nagelsmann was probably hoping for, though, as Austria created most of the chances while keeping Germany at bay for the majority of the game.
In the 16th minute, a lofted pass found Michael Gregoritsch one-on-one with Kevin Trapp, but the Eintracht Frankfurt goalkeeper, once again deputising for the injured Marc-André ter Stegen, produced a superb one-handed save to deny the striker.
However, Trapp could do nothing to prevent Marcel Sabitzer from opening the scoring on the half-hour mark, as the Borussia Dortmund midfielder made a couple of body feints before cutting inside and firing home at the near post.
Nagelsmann sent on Thomas Müller for Niclas Füllkrug at the break in the hope of turning things around, but their hopes of a comeback were dealt a blow when Leroy Sané was shown a straight red card for pushing Philipp Mwene in the face early in the second half.
That, of course, made things all the more difficult for Germany, with even second-half substitutes Florian Wirtz and Joshua Kimmich unable to provide the spark that Nagelsmann's frustrated side so desperately needed.
Instead, Austria doubled their lead in the 73rd minute when RB Leipzig's Christoph Baumgartner broke free from Mats Hummels and beat Kevin Trapp with an audacious chip.
That proved to be the final nail in the coffin for Nagelsmann's side, who will need to radically improve on this month's performances if they are to avoid disaster at next year's European Championship on home soil.