Germany secured a 3-1 victory against Serbia in Belgrade on Friday. The result sets up a key encounter with the Netherlands in Berlin on Monday to decide who finishes top of Group A2.
The match took place in teeming rain inside an almost empty stadium. The visitors forced Serbia defender Srdan Babic into conceding an early own goal, before Florian Wirtz and debutant Brajan Gruda added the other goals for the German side.
The team has now recorded two wins, two draws and one loss across five matches under coach Jürgen Klopp. Klopp expressed optimism that his squad was beginning to take shape under his direction.
"We played a truly fantastic game. I think we need to get a bit more used to the fact that we’re genuinely good, and capable of being very, very good," Klopp told broadcaster RTL. He added that the team’s counter-pressing and intensity were top-notch.
"We wanted to qualify for that ‘final’ in Berlin, and now we have. It’s great. We’re looking forward to it, and we have a wealth of options to choose from," Klopp said.
The Netherlands secured a 7-0 win against Greece in Amsterdam on the same night. Because of that margin, Germany will likely need to win on Monday to reach the quarter-finals, unless Serbia defeats Greece away from home.
Tijjani Reijnders scored a first-half hat-trick for the Dutch. Crysencio Summerville opened the scoring for the hosts in the sixth minute before Reijnders dominated the match and Jurriën Timber scored to make it 5-0 at the break.
Timber added another goal shortly before the hour mark, and Donyell Malen scored the final goal of the match for the Netherlands.
In other European matches, Switzerland stayed on course in Group B1 after playing out a 0-0 draw against Slovenia, their closest rival in the second tier of the competition.
