Soccer Football - UEFA Nations League - Group A3 - Bosnia and Herzegovina v Germany - Bilino Polje Stadium, Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina - October 11, 2024 Germany's Deniz Undav in action with Bosnia and Herzegovina's Nikola Katic REUTERS/Amel Emric
ZENICA, Bosnia (Reuters) -Germany forward Deniz Undav scored two first-half goals in six minutes to guide them to a 2-1 victory over Bosnia on Friday and keep them top of their Nations League group.
The Germans, missing several players through injury, including Jamal Musiala, Niclas Fuellkrug and Aleksandar Pavlovic, were in control from the start but apart from a Pascal Gross shot off target had no clear chances against the disciplined hosts.
They had to wait until the half-hour mark to break the deadlock when Robert Andrich floated a cross for Florian Wirtz, who, with his back to the Bosnia goal, fed Undav for a first-time finish.
The VfB Stuttgart striker then doubled their advantage six minutes later, poking in a Maximilian Mittelstaedt cross.
The visitors should have scored more and put the ball in the net three more times only for the efforts to be ruled out for offside.
Bosnia, who hit the woodwork through Ermedin Demirovic, cut the deficit when Edin Dzeko scored with a header at the far post in the 70th minute to inject some late tension into the game but they could not get the equaliser.
"Overall I am satisfied with the performance," said Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann. "We did not allow too many counter-attacks. We maybe had too few goals for the dominance we had.
"But we had to see how much we want to go for a third goal, after conceding one, and having made some substitutions. And we also had to think about the game on Monday (against the Netherlands)."
Nagelsmann also said that midfielder Chris Fuehrich would not be available for Monday, having picked up a muscle injury after coming on as a substitute.
Germany top Group A3 on seven points from three games, with the Dutch in second place on five. Hungary are on two and Bosnia are in last place on one point.
(Reporting by Karolos GrohmannEditing by Toby Davis)
