Undav and Kimmich help Germany hit back in draw with Dutch, Ake hurt

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 İlkay Gündoğan, 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.

It made for a raucous atmosphere and the home fans were quickly in full voice when Liverpool's Ryan Gravenberch, a failure at Germany's Bayern Munich, played in Reijnders as the visitors left a huge gap in the middle of the park.

Undav scores in fourth appearance

Germany, who beat the Dutch in a friendly in March last year as Naglesmann found his stride as coach, settled thereafter and Kai Havertz went close with a rasping effort.

But the Netherlands, Euro 2024 semi-finalists and fourth in the last Nations League, almost made it 2-0 when Dumfries headed a free-kick just wide while Xavi Simons also had two good chances.

Germany kept plugging away though and when Florian Wirtz's deflected shot was saved by Bart Verbruggen, Undav was on hand for his first goal in four international appearances.

A superb move soon had Naglesmann's side ahead. Robert Andrich found rampaging left back David Raum, who slid in a cross for Undav and the ball broke for right back Kimmich to tap home.

Kimmich constantly had space on the right as Germany pressed high despite their early problems at the back.

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.

The players then tired although Germany were annoyed with the referee for blowing for full-time while they were on the attack.

"They had chances, we had chances," Germany's Jamal Musiala said. "We have to show improvement game by game. We have to be a bit more secure with the ball and be cleverer."