Sports

Germany beat Serbia 3-1 and set up a decider with the Netherlands

Errol MayfieldPublished 2m ago2 min readBased on 1 source
Germany beat Serbia 3-1 and set up a decider with the Netherlands
Photo by YantsImages / CC BY-SA 4.0

Germany beat Serbia 3-1 in Belgrade, and the win sets up a showdown with the Netherlands in Berlin to decide who finishes top of Nations League Group A2. The Nations League is a competition in which European national teams play each other in small groups, and every match carries points.

Florian Wirtz scored for Germany. Brajan Gruda also scored, and he did it on his debut for his country. Serbia's Srdan Babic put through his own goal, and later in the match he pulled one back for Serbia after the break, according to The Guardian.

Serbia's afternoon got harder as it went on. Vanja Dragojevic and Andrija Zivkovic were both sent off, which left Serbia playing the final stretch with nine men.

Germany's form under Jurgen Klopp, the former Liverpool manager, is a mixed picture so far. In five games in charge, Germany have won twice, drawn twice and lost once.

The Netherlands were far more ruthless. They beat Greece 7-0 in Amsterdam, leading 5-0 at half-time. Crysencio Summerville opened the scoring in the sixth minute. Tijjani Reijnders then scored a first-half hat-trick, meaning three goals by one player in a single game. Jurrien Timber added two more, and Donyell Malen scored the final goal.

Elsewhere in the same competition, Switzerland and Slovenia drew 0-0 in Group B1, so neither side moved closer to the top of their group.

For the Netherlands and Germany, the Berlin meeting is the one that counts. Whoever wins it, or the points from it, will decide who tops Group A2.