Germany International Men's

Deniz Undav and İlkay Gündoğan: Thoughts after Germany's dominant win over France

By
Moritz Baer
March 25, 2024
14:10
İlkay Gündoğan. Photo: Deutsche Fussball Bund/ German football association (DFB)
İlkay Gündoğan. Photo: Deutsche Fussball Bund/ German football association (DFB)

Germany defeated France in Lyon thanks to a lightning quick goal from Florian Wirtz in under ten seconds, and a second half strike from Kai Havertz. This kickstarted Julian Nagelsmann's Euro 2024 preparations.

Regardless of Manuel Neuer's injury, İlkay Gündoğan was going to retain his captaincy that he gained last year from Julian Nagelsmann. He was of course selected in the starting eleven for the France and played in his preferred position of the attacking midfield role.

Florian Wirtz and Kai Havertz both netted to make it 2-0 and give Germany their first clean sheet since March last year against Peru.

On whether the Florian Wirtz goal was planned, İlkay Gündoğan said: "Yes, we spoke about this before the game that there is a chance to do this because the France team sit quite high and press high up the field."

He added: "The funny thing is, the game was very good. Despite this, you still have the feeling that it could have gone even better. I think that in the first and second half we had unnecessary losses of the ball."

VfB Stuttgart star Deniz Undav made his first ever appearance for the Germany national team, about the game he said: "I am obviously overly joyed that I got the time and came in for ten, fifteen minutes in the game."

Asked about the key to victory, Deniz Undav said: "Everyone was relaxed, everyone was focused. We wanted to bring a good performance. If this came to a win or not, nobody would have thought that we would have shown a reaction."


Germany face the Netherlands on Tuesday in Frankfurt, with the hope of making it back to back victories against two of the top ten in the FIFA men's rankings.

Match Result

Germany International Men's
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Germany International Men's
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