Germany 2-0 Hungary: Terrific Gündoğan fires hosts to knockout stages

With a second victory in as many games, hosts Germany progressed to the round of 16 with a relatively comfortable victory over Hungary.

Goals from Jamal Musiala and Ilkay Gündoğan were enough to take die Mannschaft to victory, but not without helping hands from Manuel Neuer’s gloves and the linesman’s flag.

As it happened

They were never going to have it as easy as they did against Scotland, but even still, Germany didn’t exactly start as they meant to go on; in fact, they almost hit the self-destruct button fifteen seconds in. A loose pass aimed neither at Manuel Neuer, nor at Jonathan Tah or Antonio Rüdiger set up a one-on-one between the German keeper and Barnabás Varga, but it was Neuer who was more alert, coming out to smother the early chance.

By no means did Hungary outplay the Germans in the first half, but what they did do was put up a much sterner resistance than Scotland did last week; that wasn’t a particularly difficult task, because Scotland really were reaching new levels of abjectness in that game, but it made a massive difference in terms of how Julian Nagelsmann’s side performed.

They did have the majority of the ball in the first half, but there were an awful lot of instances in which one-twos didn’t quite come off, or players were on different wavelengths to one another, or passes were played to the wrong player at the wrong time; Robert Andrich, Jamal Musiala and even pass-master extraordinaire Toni Kroos were guilty of inexplicably wayward balls.

Disappointing as their passing was at times in the first half, it didn’t stop Germany from creating chances. Kai Havertz was the man guilty of missing the most clear-cut opportunity in the opening fifteen minutes, outmuscling Willi Orban to fire an effort at Péter Gulácsi, who reacted quickly to steer the danger clear.

Ten minutes later, die Mannschaft would learn from that mistake and take the lead. Musiala played Ilkay Gündoğan in behind with a pass that was slightly too heavy, but neither Gulácsi nor Orban were able to properly deal with it. Instead, Orban rather fell on the ball which then squirmed out from underneath him thanks to a generous helping of Gündoğan pressure, allowing the German captain to pounce, square it to Musiala and watch him fire into an all but empty net.

But Hungary weren’t down and out. At no point did this game resemble the dismantling of Scotland last week, not least because Germany opted to wear their purple aways shirt on home soil. It was Marco Rossi’s side, in fact, who created the next big chance – but what they forgot about was that Manuel Neuer was between the sticks.

Oh, Manuel Neuer. At the age of 38, he’s one of only two players left from the squad which conquered the world a decade ago, and he’s not lost it since.

Dominik Szoboszlai faced him from his favourite position: dead ball, 25 yards away, lefthand side – his territory. And, as he does, he whipped the ball with venom towards the top left corner. Not to worry for Germany, though. Neuer – albeit after a slow start – leapt and seemed to stay in midair for minutes, not seconds. He parried the ball into the six-yard box and, realising the error of his ways, quickly swept the ball out for a corner just before a Hungarian toe could force it past him.

In German, ‘Neuer’ translates to ‘newer.’ Well, he might not be getting any younger, but he certainly seems evergreen.

Then, right at the end of the half, Hungary scored – except, they didn’t. Roland Sallai nodded the ball into an empty net after another parry from Neuer, but the man who initially headed it goalwards, Willi Orban, was offside. The goal was chalked off and the whistle was blown – Germany, only just the better side in the opening 45, crept into halftime with their lead intact.

Come the second half, they still looked shaky. Hungary smelt blood and continued to look threatening on the counter.

On the hour mark, they got their big chance to equalise. Sallai was played down the lefthand side and, with acres of space to work with, whipped a devilish cross into the area for Varga to attack. This was the man who scored Hungary’s consolation against Switzerland with another, albeit stylistically different header – but he couldn’t repeat that feat. He leapt high, a foot or so above marker Jonathan Tah, but could only loop his header over the bar and out to German safety.

From that point onwards, Hungarian resistance transformed into idle Hungarian hope. Germany really found their rhythm, and their patient buildup looked more likely to bring forth the next goal than the occasionally counterattack from their rivals.

That’s how it happened, too. At the end of a move containing no fewer than 20 passes was İlkay Gündoğan. He was the man who set up the opener, but he was now in the mood for a goal of his own. First, Maximilian Mittelstädt was played into space down the left flank, then he slid the ball into the area and then, finally, his captain found five yards of room to slide home a left-footed effort into the far corner. 2-0 was the score and the game was all but decided.

Against Switzerland in their opener, Hungary started poorly (to say the least) and then got better and better; against Germany, they started well and really trailed off.

It was the opposite for the tournament hosts; no, they didn’t dispatch Hungary quite as ruthlessly as they did Scotland and no, they didn’t have it all their own way for the entire 90 minutes, but they were consummate enough – particularly in the second half – to win without too much difficulty.

With that result, Germany have qualified to the round of 16 for the fifth consecutive European Championships. Hungary, however, will have to rely on a huge win against Scotland to see them progress as one of the best third place sides.

You can see whether that happens along with everything else at EURO2024 here at FromTheSpot.

The lineups

GER: Neuer; Mittelstädt, Tah, Rüdiger, Kimmich; Kroos, Andrich, Wirtz, Gündoğan, Musiala; Havertz

HUN: Gulácsi; Kerkez, Dárdai, Orban, Fiola, Bolla; Schäfer, Nagy; Szoboszlai, Sallai, Varga