\n<\/p>\n
Nick Woltemade scored again as Germany thrashed Slovakia to win the group and book their place at the 2026 World Cup.<\/b><\/p>\n
Julian Nagelsmann’s side needed at least a draw to ensure their automatic qualification spot at the top of Group A while victory for Slovakia would have seen them through instead and forced Germany into a play-off.<\/p>\n
But, having scored twice against Luxembourg on Friday, Newcastle striker Woltemade’s powerful header from Joshua Kimmich’s cross put Germany in control early on in Leipzig.<\/p>\n
Serge Gnabry then doubled the hosts’ lead, finishing into the corner from Leon Goretzka’s threaded pass, before Leroy Sane slotted home Florian Wirtz’s sublime ball into the penalty box.<\/p>\n
The two combined again to give Germany a four-goal lead at the break, Sane prodding in the Liverpool midfielder’s cross to the far post.<\/p>\n
The second half was a more tame affair but Ridle Baku added a fifth goal, his first for Germany since 2021, when Bayern Munich winger Gnabry shifted across for the substitute to fire home a low strike.<\/p>\n
Assan Ouedraogo added a sixth 12 minutes later, finishing smartly into the bottom corner just two minutes after coming on to make his international debut.<\/p>\n
While this was an impressive attacking display from four-time World Cup winners Germany, it also marked a fourth straight clean sheet.<\/p>\n
Slovakia were denied an equaliser at 1-0 when Oliver Baumann turned David Duris’ finish behind from close range but otherwise struggled with Germany’s high line and will now go into the play-offs after a chastening defeat.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Nick Woltemade scored again as Germany thrashed Slovakia to win the group and book their place at the 2026 World Cup. Julian Nagelsmann’s side needed at least a draw to ensure their automatic qualification spot at the top of Group A while victory for Slovakia would have seen them through instead and forced Germany into<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1455,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}