KIEV — Germany scored once in either half to beat hosts Ukraine 2-1 in the Nations League on Saturday for their first win in four matches and their first ever victory in this competition.
Matthias Ginter put them ahead in the 20th minutes after good work from Antonio Ruediger, and Leon Goretzka pounced on a mistake by Ukraine keeper Georgiy Bushchan to head in their second goal four minutes after the restart.
A howler from the Ukraine goalkeeper and Leon Goretzka is able to take advantage and put Germany 2-0 up! pic.twitter.com/hgKAweARBZ
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) October 10, 2020
Despite having the rested Bayern Munich and RB Leipzig players back in the line-up, the Germans were far from their best and a 77th minute Ruslan Malinovskyi penalty woke up the 20,000 crowd in the Ukrainian capital's Olympic stadium.
The Germans, who conceded equalisers in each of their last three games to settle for draws, managed to protect their lead on Saturday despite desperate late attacks from the hosts to bag their first three points in the competition.
On Tuesday Ukraine host Spain while the Germans, who had not won a single game in the inaugural 2018-19 competition, take on Switzerland.
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
