In a friendly played on Monday in Bremen, Germany, Germany captain Joshua Kimmich saved a 3-3 tie for his team with Ukraine by scoring an injury-time penalty. Kai Havertz’s goal gave the home team hope for a comeback when they were down 3-1 with less than 10 minutes left, and then the Chelsea striker earned a penalty in injury time, putting Kimmich on the spot. Kimmich scored the game-winning goal. In spite of the comeback, Ukraine played really well and led for most of the game. They will carry a considerable amount of momentum into this month’s vital Euro 2024 qualifying matches against North Macedonia and Malta.
When the manager of Ukraine, Serhiy Rebrov, was asked whether his team had thrown away the win in his first game in charge, he responded by telling the reporter, “Are you asking me whether it’s a success if we draw 3-3 with Germany?”
“I believe that we created a sufficient number of scoring opportunities, and we could have scored even more.”
During the post-game news conference, the manager expressed gratitude to Germany for playing host to the friendly match, stating that “this is an important match for Ukraine.”
“We owe Germany a debt of gratitude for their assistance to us during the war.”
The head coach of Germany, Hansi Flick, expressed his regret over the “individual mistakes” and said that his team needs to “keep working and show that we’ve improved the things that we’re training for.”
Flick told the ZDF network in Germany that “we know it’s a long process, but it’s the process that’s important.”
“We started well,” Kimmich stated after the game, “but then we conceded two stupid goals.” That is the one thing that we need to avoid doing.
Impressive Mudryk
Flick kept the promise he made before the game to bring “attacking power” to the game, which was Germany’s 1000th top-level match.
The manager decided to play with a back three, which freed up offensive-minded players like David Raum and Marius Wolf to roam the flanks.
The script seemed to be going according to plan for the hosts early on, with Antonio Ruediger’s pressure forcing a rushed Mykhaylo Mudryk to pass right to an unmarked Niclas Fuellkrug only yards from the goal. It appeared as if everything was going according to plan for the hosts.
Fuellkrug scored barely six minutes into the game by redirecting a shot from the Wolf into the back of the net. Meanwhile, the striker’s shot went just a few millimetres short of the goal.
The goal was at first given to Wolf, but it was subsequently changed to be credited to Fuellkrug. This makes it the Bremen striker’s eighth goal in seven games while representing Germany.
Germany made an effort to score a second goal, but Ukraine scored twice in the space of five minutes to shift the tide of the game.
The goal scored by Viktor Tsyhankov during Ukraine’s counterattack was first disallowed for offside due to Julian Brandt’s careless pass, but it was reinstated after being reviewed by the video assistant referees.
The away team launched another counterattack, and this time it was Mudryk who made the decisive play. The Chelsea forward’s effort deflected in off of Ruediger, who was standing still, for an own goal.
Before halftime, Bremen striker Fuellkrug replaced Havertz, which infuriated the crowd in the home stadium. However, Ukraine doubled their lead shortly after, taking advantage of another error made by Germany.
On the outside of the penalty area, Matthias Ginter was unable to cope with a high back ball that Julian Brandt played to him. Artem Dovbyk pounced on the loose ball and set up Viktor Tsygankov for the goal that made the score 3-1.
When it appeared that they had little chance of winning the game, the away team took the outstanding Mudryk out of the game. They were looking forward to the other matches in the month.
Havertz, a striker for Chelsea, scored the following goal for Germany, putting away a looping ball from Ruediger to give the crowd in Germany optimism that they may stage a comeback.
Soon after that, the striker got a penalty when Eduard Sobol took him down inside the area, which summoned the team captain, Kimmich, to the spot.
Germany avoided the embarrassment of falling behind in the competition to host the 2024 European Championships when the Bayern Munich midfielder’s penalty kick hit the post and went in.
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Ukraine have shown genuine promise that they may make it to the tournament, despite having a difficult qualifying group that included Euro 2021 finalists England and Italy. While Germany has already qualified as hosts, Ukraine has shown real promise that they could make it to the tournament.
