News (engl.)

Germany passed their penultimate World Cup warm-up with flying colours. After the 4-0 win over Finland in Mainz, coach Julian Nagelsmann and his players reflected on their final outing in front of the home fans. DFB.de has rounded up the reaction.

Julian Nagelsmann: I was happy with much of the performance. We tweaked a few things at half time and then put them into practice. The first 15 minutes were very good, and the lads wanted to show what they could do. We regained control before the break and also defended deeper. The goal on the counter showed that we can defend deeper and still be effective. The result is good, we kept a clean sheet and we can carry on like this. We wanted to keep Deniz on the pitch for as long as possible. We need players who can put the ball in the back of the net, and he did that today. Lennart Karl tried a lot of things and was brave on the ball. He’s a versatile player. It was a good test in terms of trusting what we’re good at. We scored four goals against a low block. Now we need to keep reinforcing the things we’ve worked on over the last two years. We need more trust in one another, more positive moments, and eight wins in a row are helping us build that.

Deniz Undav: It was a great evening, my family were here and I had a hand in three goals. It couldn’t have gone any better. I just try to do my job, and I did that today. I’m in a bit of pain, but it’s nothing major – a bit of treatment and I’ll be fine. We will only consider the World Cup to be a success if we win it.

Jamal Musiala: We created good chances. We did everything we set out to do. Everyone enjoyed it today. The goal will give me a lot of confidence, especially with the games we’ve got coming up now. I feel good. I hadn’t played 90 minutes for a long time, so that was good for me today.

Joshua Kimmich: We kept things pretty tight over the full 90 minutes and fully deserved to win. We wanted to press high as often as possible and scored one goal from that, one after dropping deeper and one from a set piece. We’ve got a lot of talented lads up front, and we need to make that count on the pitch.

Lennart Karl: I had goosebumps walking out onto the pitch. The national anthem and my assist were special moments for me. I found out yesterday that I’d be starting, and I was really pleased to have that trust from the coaching staff. I just love playing football and I bring a bit of creativity to the game.