And…breathe. It was tense. It was difficult. But Germany prevailed in a must-win match away to Northern Ireland, winning 1-0 thanks to Nick Woltemade managing to squeeze the ball over the line with his
shoulder. The three points were all that mattered and that it what the 2014 World Cup champions delivered, but this performance will be unlikely to stem worries about the team as a whole. From a difficult match, we pick Germany’s best performers:
Jersey Swap: Daniel Ballard
Daniel Ballard was a true rock at the heart of Northern Ireland’s defense today. The AFC Sunderland defender won 5 of his 8 aerial duels and 7 of his 10 ground duels, doing his utmost to repel any Germany attacks all day. He was up against a big, dangerous striker in Nick Woltemade but he did really well to combat the Newcastle forward. Who knew we would see the Newcastle and Sunderland rivalry play out in a game like this?
Der Kaiser: Nico Schlotterbeck
Nico Schlotterbeck had just come back from a 5 month long injury. During the time the Borussia Dortmund dender was out, Jonathan Tah and Antonio Rüdiger the center back duo for Germany and received an incredible amount of heat for their poor performances. The Real Madrid center back missed this game due to injury, but the difference between having Schlotterbeck on the field and not having him on the field was noticeable for all. His quality on the ball was immense throughout, calmly leading Germany’s build up with unbelievably precise passes. He was mostly solid on defense, too, though one cannot help but notice that Tah and Schlottbeck were not quite on the same wavelength at times. In the 88th minute, for example, Schlotterbeck stood his ground in the face of an attack but Tah followed the attacker, lifting the offside trap, removing the former SC Freiburg defender from the equation and leading to a big chance for the home side to score. These defensive misunderstandings would have led to a conceded goal on another day.
Der Fußballgott: Aleksandar Pavlović
It has been noticeable how Bayern Munich head coach Vincent Kompany has been trying to ease Aleksandar Pavlović into the playmaking role at the club. For years, Kimmich alone has shouldered the burden of being Bayern’s playmaker, with the likes of Leon Goretzka, Corentin Tolisso and Marcel Sabitzer venturing forward instead. But Pavlović has the skills to pull off what Kimmich is doing at Bayern right now. The transition at Bayern, at the moment, is slow. But it has been much faster in the national team. Germany head coach Julian Nagelsmann’s decision to play Kimmich in midfield again last international break backfired and he duly quickly reversed it again, leaving the playmaking role open to the next in line. Which, of course, was Pavlović. He was brilliant against Luxembourg and, while he did not hit the heights of that match today, he was quite good against Northern Ireland as well. Ireland notably pushed up to limit the Bayern youth academy player’s space and cut him off from the center backs but he still found space to knit together play and keep the home side at arm’s length. He still produced some naïve moments while defending, though, letting the ball pass him too easily at times and making some ill timed challenges.
Der Bomber: Nick Woltemade
Ultimately, the match winner has to feature. It was generally a dour attacking performance from Germany and Nick Woltemade was not immune to the struggles of his fellow forwards. But great players score despite imperfect performances and Woltemade did so to net his first international goal for the senior Germany national team. Still, imperfect is the right word for his game, winning just 3 of his 12 ground duels as the Northern Ireland center backs managed to overpower him multiple times.
Meister of the match: Nobody
The theme of these awards is that even the best performers delivered flawed performances. Nobody truly shined, nobody took the match into their own hands and ripped it away from Northern Ireland. It was a fine, competent performance. But it was not unexceptional team performance with unexceptional individual performances. Therefore, nobody deserves this award.
The German national team knew it would need to step up its efforts against Northern Ireland.
While not a powerhouse, the Northern Ireland squad was game and made life very tough during Germany’s 1-0 victory. It was not pretty and it was not likely the kind of dominant result that fans wanted to see, but it was a stiff test and one where the Germans could not afford to come out flat.
Intensity and focus were there, but execution was not. Regardless, it was a win for Germany. Let’s dive into the details. This is what we have on tap for this edition of the Bavarian Podcast Works — Postgame Show:
- A look at Bayern Munich’s starting XI — what worked, what didn’t, and where things might be headed.
- A rundown of the scoring and substitutions.
- Some takeaways on the match and where this leaves Germany heading into the final international break of 2025 during November.
