News (engl.)

Nick Woltemade: That goal was really important for me. My first appearances for the national side hadn’t gone as I’d hoped. Maybe it’s quite fitting then that I scored with my shoulder. It was important for us to get three points out of a scrappy game. We’ve worked really hard on our set pieces and it’s nice that we managed to score from one. It makes us a bit more unpredictable. I’ve gotten more used to that sort of physicality since moving to the Premier League – I quite enjoy it when there’s a lot of duels and challenges.

Julian Nagelsmann: It wasn’t a pretty game. There was a lot of emotion and a great atmosphere supporting the Northern Irish which we managed to embrace. Northern Ireland looked to play direct and win the second or third balls. They made a lot of runs in behind and sometimes had nine or ten players up front which meant there were a lot of people to defend. The midfielders had to make a lot of challenges and break up play. We had a lot of set pieces and managed to score from one, which I’m pleased with as we work on them a lot in training. Woltemade has worked a lot harder in the past couple of games. We didn’t create enough chances today and ended up only winning by a small margin. It was important that we won both games. It’s difficult to win games like this and play attractive football.

Joshua Kimmich: The first half was chaotic. We found our feet in the second half, but only for a short period of time. It was a real fight today. It was all about the result though – everyone just wants to qualify for the tournament. The ball’s in our court now. It certainly wasn’t a brilliant performance today, but it was an important three points for us as a team.