Germany booked their place in the round of 16 at EURO 2024 with a second win from as many games in Group A. Coach Julian Nagelsmann’s side defeated Hungary 2-0 in Stuttgart and now six points on the board, meaning they will at the very least be one of the four best third-place teams. DFB.de has summarised the quotes from a solid performance against a tricky opponent.
Toni Kroos: It’s always important to build on the first win. We’ve very rarely won the first two games of a tournament. It was clear tonight that it was a more difficult game than the one on Friday against Scotland. We overcome a few tough moments and ultimately secured a convincing win. It’s obviously great to see that the national team is still capable of getting the whole country excited. Finishing first in the group would be a real statement and it’s important we keep up our good run. There’s no reason not to give 100% still – that’s something that has killed us in other tournaments. We now need to recover and go again on Sunday night. We shouldn’t start to rest on our laurels. There is no reason for any less pressure because our aim is to go a lot further than just the round of 16.
Julian Nagelsmann: I’m satisfied overall. That was the kind of game that you have to work hard to win. The team and everyone in the stadium expected three points and we got them. Everybody gave their all tonight and that’s a really, really good sign. I think we controlled the game nicely in the second half. We carved them open nicely for our second goal, it was a lovely move. Some of the lads wanted to get a third goal at the end, some others just wanted to keep the ball – it was a bit wild. Overall though, we can be happy.
Ilkay Gündogan: It feels like we just keep on getting better. However, we had a few tricky moments, particularly in the first half, where Manu made some good saves from some dangerous Hungary counter-attacks. Tournament football is just about surviving the scares and then being clinical yourself. We did just that in the second half. Hopefully things can continue like this.
Manuel Neuer: This win was extremely important. We wanted to show that we could perform like that again. History has shown that it’s not easy to play against Hungary and be successful again in your second group game, which is why I’m even happier that we’ve put in a dominant performance here in Stuttgart and secured a convincing win. The atmosphere was great and the stadium was full too. I’m pleased this tournament is at home. Germany are always one of the favourites, but we’ve just got to get the job done ourselves. Our next game will be the toughest on paper in the group. We want to take the momentum we’ve built up into this last game. We deserved a clean sheet against Scotland, so it’s even more important that we got one today.
Maximilian Mittelstädt: It’s important that we don’t let up now. We want to carry this momentum that we’ve started to build up into the coming games. We know we can go really deep into this tournament. We’ve performed really well in the last two games and if we continue to do so, we can achieve something huge.
Jonathan Tah: It was a really intense game and we expected that. They caused us a few problems, but we dealt with them pretty well. We were really solid in defence. We needed to be patient to find some space, but I think we knocked it about nicely to find gaps in their side.
Germany booked their place in the round of 16 at EURO 2024 with a second win from as many games in Group A. Coach Julian Nagelsmann’s side defeated Hungary 2-0 in Stuttgart and now six points on the board, meaning they will at the very least be one of the four best third-place teams. DFB.de has summarised the quotes from a solid performance against a tricky opponent.
Toni Kroos: It’s always important to build on the first win. We’ve very rarely won the first two games of a tournament. It was clear tonight that it was a more difficult game than the one on Friday against Scotland. We overcome a few tough moments and ultimately secured a convincing win. It’s obviously great to see that the national team is still capable of getting the whole country excited. Finishing first in the group would be a real statement and it’s important we keep up our good run. There’s no reason not to give 100% still – that’s something that has killed us in other tournaments. We now need to recover and go again on Sunday night. We shouldn’t start to rest on our laurels. There is no reason for any less pressure because our aim is to go a lot further than just the round of 16.
Julian Nagelsmann: I’m satisfied overall. That was the kind of game that you have to work hard to win. The team and everyone in the stadium expected three points and we got them. Everybody gave their all tonight and that’s a really, really good sign. I think we controlled the game nicely in the second half. We carved them open nicely for our second goal, it was a lovely move. Some of the lads wanted to get a third goal at the end, some others just wanted to keep the ball – it was a bit wild. Overall though, we can be happy.
Ilkay Gündogan: It feels like we just keep on getting better. However, we had a few tricky moments, particularly in the first half, where Manu made some good saves from some dangerous Hungary counter-attacks. Tournament football is just about surviving the scares and then being clinical yourself. We did just that in the second half. Hopefully things can continue like this.
Manuel Neuer: This win was extremely important. We wanted to show that we could perform like that again. History has shown that it’s not easy to play against Hungary and be successful again in your second group game, which is why I’m even happier that we’ve put in a dominant performance here in Stuttgart and secured a convincing win. The atmosphere was great and the stadium was full too. I’m pleased this tournament is at home. Germany are always one of the favourites, but we’ve just got to get the job done ourselves. Our next game will be the toughest on paper in the group. We want to take the momentum we’ve built up into this last game. We deserved a clean sheet against Scotland, so it’s even more important that we got one today.
Maximilian Mittelstädt: It’s important that we don’t let up now. We want to carry this momentum that we’ve started to build up into the coming games. We know we can go really deep into this tournament. We’ve performed really well in the last two games and if we continue to do so, we can achieve something huge.
Jonathan Tah: It was a really intense game and we expected that. They caused us a few problems, but we dealt with them pretty well. We were really solid in defence. We needed to be patient to find some space, but I think we knocked it about nicely to find gaps in their side.
