It was a Premier League show for Germany as Chelsea’s Kai Havertz and Manchester City’s Ilkay Gundogan scored as Die Mannschaft got their 2022 World Cup qualifying campaign off to a winning start with a comfortable win over Iceland.
The home side led in the 2nd minute itself as Bayern Munich‘s Leon Goretzka scored a beauty to put the Germans up early.
Inside 5 minutes of that, Havertz made it 2-0 with a neat and composed finish as it started looking like it was going to be a long day for the visitors.
Manchester City midfielder Gundogan continued with his red-hot form as he scored Germany’s third and final goal of the game making it 15 goals now in his last 24 appearances for club and country!
The closest Iceland came to scoring was a Runar Sigurjonsson shot that deflected just wide in the first half. Germany were head and shoulders above their opposition and really imposed their will on the game.
The Germans should have added to their tally when Antonio Rudiger pounced on a header that he should have hit the target with.
Germany also gave a late run-out to Timo Werner and Bayern Munich’s 18-year-old prodigy Jamal Musiala, who last month opted to represent the country of his birth as opposed to England.
Germany coach Joachim Low, who is stepping down after this year’s European Championship, was pleased with his team’s performance as they prepare for a crucial 2 years.
“It wasn’t our most incredible performance, but it was very important to make a positive start to the new year and that’s what we’ve done tonight,” he said.
“We knew they’d sit deep and we knew we were going to have to force them to move in order to create space. I think we did that really well for at least 60 minutes.”
The Germans had 81% possession and 15 shots on goal. They really imposed their will on a side that will likely finish 2nd in the group if based on the recent past.
Germany visit Romania in their next Group J match on Sunday while Iceland travel to Armenia. The other two teams in the group are North Macedonia and Liechtenstein so you have got to say that the Die Mannschaft will top this group even if they are not at their supreme best.
Romania won their first match against North Macedonia 3-2 but that is not something that the Germans will be too worried about going into the weekend match.
