Wirtz hit the post and Bischof was waiting, and Klopp finally has a Germany win

It took Jürgen Klopp three games, but Germany have won one. Tom Bischof scored his first international goal and Florian Wirtz added a second as Germany beat Serbia 2-0 at the Allianz Arena on Thursday night, 1 October.

Against a side bottom of the group and without its two best strikers, a win was expected. How Germany won it was more interesting.

Wirtz hit the post, and Bischof was there

Klopp made sweeping changes from the side that lost 1-0 to Greece in Augsburg on Sunday. Jonas Urbig made his debut in goal at his club ground, and Serge Gnabry wore the armband because Joshua Kimmich was one of the players allowed to leave the camp after the first two games.

Germany had the ball and most of the chances from the start. Aleksandar Pavlović, Nick Woltemade and Waldemar Anton all shot wide before the breakthrough. It came six minutes before half-time, when Wirtz’s shot came back off the post and Bischof, 21 and a Bayern Munich team-mate of Urbig’s, put the rebound in.

Wirtz got his own goal after 61 minutes. Maximilian Mittelstädt played him in down the left, he got away from Srđan Babić, and he finished into the corner.

Serbia barely got a look at Urbig. Filip Kostić had their best moment, a long-range effort that Urbig saved without much trouble. Klopp handed out a second debut at half-time, sending on Said El Mala for Gnabry.

Klopp liked all of it

Klopp was asked afterwards what he had liked about the performance. He said: “Everything. The opening phase, the middle part, and the end.”

“That’s going in my archive,” he added. “We’ll make a video out of it now. That’s how we want to play.”

He was especially pleased with Wirtz. “The way we want to play suits Florian Wirtz,” he said. “The boy plays with joy and has worked incredibly hard.” Wirtz, who has had a difficult time at Liverpool, said it mattered “to send a signal out that we’re good football players and also a good football nation.”

I’d be careful with that signal. Serbia arrived with two defeats, no Dušan Vlahović and no Aleksandar Mitrović, and they had a quiet night in attack. Germany created enough to win by four or five and scored twice. That is a better problem than the one Klopp had in Augsburg, but it is still a problem.

Greece next, and the group is tight

The other game in the group was a 2-2 draw in Thessaloniki, where Tijjani Reijnders equalised for the Netherlands in the 89th minute. That leaves Greece on seven points, the Netherlands on five, Germany on four and Serbia on none.

Germany go to Greece on Sunday, 4 October, at the Toumba Stadium in Thessaloniki. Kick-off is 9:45pm local time, which is 12:15am IST on Monday. Greece won the first meeting in Augsburg, and a second win over Germany would put six points between the sides with two games left. A Germany win would draw them level with Greece on seven points. One good night against Serbia does not settle much yet.

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