Soccer Football - UEFA Nations League - Group Stage - Hungary v Germany - Puskas Arena Park, Budapest, Hungary - November 19, 2024 Germany's Felix Nmecha scores their first goal REUTERS/Bernadett Szabo
BUDAPEST (Reuters) -Already-qualified Germany conceded a stoppage-time equaliser after conceding a penalty and had to settle for a 1-1 draw away to Hungary in their final Nations League group match on Tuesday.
Hungary's Dominik Szoboszlai scored from the spot with the last kick of the game to cancel out Felix Nmecha's 76th minute goal. The hosts already had a place in the League A/B playoffs.
Germany had sealed top spot in Group A3 with Saturday's 7-0 demolition of Bosnia and Herzegovina so coach Julian Nagelsmann rotated heavily with nine changes to his lineup in Hungary.
"I don't really don't want to talk too much about today's game. We did some things right and some other things not," said Nagelsmann.
"After winning 7-0 (against Bosnia) and with nine changes, we took some time to get organised. But you have to look at the big picture. If you see how Hungary celebrated the equaliser then it is a compliment to our team," he added.
Germany, who finished top on 14 points and advance to the quarter-finals with the Netherlands, who also drew 1-1 away to Bosnia and Herzegovina, lacked the explosiveness of the previous match and did not easily find spaces against the Hungarians.
Instead it was the hosts, without assistant coach Adam Szalai who is recovering after collapsing during Saturday's match against the Netherlands, who set the pace and tested Alexander Nuebel with shots from Andras Schaefer and Zsolt Nagy.
The four-times world champions, with their sights already on the 2026 World Cup co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico, improved after the break and hit the post through Kai Havertz in the 63rd minute.
But visiting goalkeeper Nuebel had to come to the rescue once more by palming Barnabas Varga's effort from point-blank range wide before Nmecha, in his first Germany match as a starter, stabbed in following a goalmouth scramble.
Szoboszlai then bagged the last-gasp penalty for the hosts, who finished third in the group, in the ninth minute of added time. Bottom side Bosnia were already relegated to League B.
Germany, who last won the World Cup in 2014, will kick off the qualification competition in March following December's draw and, after more than decade without any tournament success, they are desperate to restore their international reputation.
"I am overall satisfied with our year if you exclude the Euros and what we could have potentially achieved there," Nagelsmann said. "I have never felt a 'we' feeling like I have here. The team has developed really well.
"In 2026 I feel we will be better prepared than we were in 2024," he said.
The Germans crashed out of the last two World Cups in the first round, while they were eliminated in the last 16 at Euro 2020 and the quarter-finals of Euro 2024 on home soil.
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann; Editing by Ken Ferris)
