Serge Gnabry's first-half strike enough as Germany narrowly beat Romania
Germany missed a host of chances against Romania, but still managed to make it two wins out of two in their World Cup qualification campaign with a narrow 1-0 victory.
| Serge Gnabry. | Photo: Steffen Prößdorf, CC BY-SA 4.0 |
Germany coach Joachim Löw named an unchanged team from Thursday's 3-0 victory over Iceland, lining up in a 4-3-3 with Leroy Sané, Kai Havertz and Serge Gnabry playing up front.
The latter two combined for the opener in the 17th minute as Havertz was found in behind by Antonio Rüdiger and squared the ball across goal to Serge Gnabry, who only had to tap in.
A moment later, Germany nearly doubled their lead as Joshua Kimmich's long-range effort hit the bar after taking a slight deflection.
While Romania rarely threatened the German goal, the guests had plenty of chances to increase their lead, but failed to convert them.
In the early stages of the second half, Leon Goretzka and Serge Gnabry were both denied by Florin Nita in the Romanian net, and Leroy Sané and substitute Timo Werner later squandered chances to extend the lead.
The second goal never came, but Gnabry's first-half goal was enough to edge 'Die Mannschaft' past the Romanian hosts.
