Liverpool man backs “very good” Germany to win the World Cup
Liverpool’s Florian Wirtz scored twice and provided two assists in a fine individual performance as Germany beat Switzerland 4-3 on Friday.
The 22-year-old dominated a game in which Germany twice came from behind. Switzerland had taken the lead through Dan Ndoye after a defensive error, but Jonathan Tah equalised with a header.
Breel Embolo restored the hosts’ advantage before halftime, only for Serge Gnabry to level again from a Wirtz assist.
Wirtz then put his side 3-2 ahead shortly after the hour with a curling shot from distance. And after Switzerland responded once more with Joel Monteiro making it 3-3, Wirtz sealed victory in the 86th minute with another effort from the edge of the box.
“We have a tight World Cup phase in front of us and we obviously want to reach the final and win the trophy but we all know it will be a very hard road until then,” Wirtz said.
“No concerns there because we have a very good team and a good defence,” Wirtz said. “I think you feel that we have not played together for some time and all three goals were a little bit avoidable. But it is about winning games and if you score more goals than the opponent then it’s alright.”
Switzerland captain Granit Xhaka said the match provided useful lessons ahead of the World Cup.
“We are used to such high-scoring games against Germany and there are a lot of things we can learn from such a game, like the calmness of Germany under pressure and how they find solutions and ways out, and obviously the quality they have,” Xhaka said. “For us it was a very good test.”
