DPA
Amsterdam
Deniz Undav scored his first Germany goal on his first start in an entertaining 2-2 draw away to the Netherlands in the Nations League on Tuesday.
The Dutch ripped through the middle of the German side after just 2 minutes and Tijani Reijnders coolly slotted home for the hosts.
But their old rivals hit back on 38 when Undav, who had struggled to get in to the game, netted on the rebound.
The Stuttgart man then set up captain Joshua Kimmich for 2-1 on the stroke of half-time, but Undav possibly miscued a shot.
Netherlands defender Denzel Dumfries levelled the scores early in the second period and the game then petered out.
Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann told RTL: "It was very entertaining but with both defences maybe a bit too open. I think we deserved to come back into it.” Netherlands captain Virgil van Dijk thought a draw was fair.
"We played well,” he told NOS. "I am very happy about the way we pressured early in the second half and how we were in possession of the ball. In the first half we were running backwards too often, but we started the second half excellently, especially with the goal.”
Füllkrug injured
Undav started in place of Niclas Füllkrug, who scored the opener in Friday’s 5-0 win over Hungary but missed the clash in Amsterdam due to an Achilles problem.
After the international retirements of Manuel Neuer, Toni Kroos, Thomas Müller and Ilkay Gündogan, Germany have made a decent start to the Nations League as they try to ease the pain of a quarter-final loss to winners Spain as Euro 2024 hosts.
Apart from Undav starting, coach Nagelsmann otherwise went with the same team and formation that crushed the Hungarians in Dusseldorf.
The Dutch, who beat Bosnia Herzegovina 5-2 in their Nations League Group A3 opener on Friday, also made only one change as Brian Brobbey came in for Joshua Zirkzee up front.
The roof was closed at the Johan Cruyff Arena due to bad weather.
The Dutch, who saw Nathan Ake stretchered off late in the first period, came out for the second half with renewed purpose and Dumfries converted Brobbey’s low cross after waves of pressure.