JULIAN NAGELSMANN PLAYERS SLAMS GERMANY AFTER 2-0 WORLD CUP QUALIFYING LOSS TO SLIVAKIA

Nagelsmann did not hesitate to call out his players after the shock 2-0 loss to Slovakia

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It was a night to forget for Germany as they kicked off their 2026 World Cup qualifying campaign against Slovakia in Bratislava. Despite dominating possession, Julian Nagelsmann’s side looked devoid of creativity in attack and were vulnerable in defense en route to a 2-0 loss.

David Hancko’s goal for Slovakia shortly before the halftime whistle set to tone and David Strelec curled an effort into the top left corner in the 55th minute to complete the scoreline. By the closing stages of the match, several players in the German squad cut entirely frustrated figures, throwing arms in the air with every misplaced pass or chance as the inevitability of defeat set in.

After the match, Nagelsmann did not shy away from expressing his dissatisfaction.

“Apart from 2-3 injured players, these are the best quality players we have in Germany. Maybe next time we have to call up players with less quality but who will give everything on the pitch. I trust my players, but being simply a better player than the opponent is not enough if you don’t show willingness and desire,” the former Bayern Munich, RB Leipzig and Hoffenheim manager ranted (via @iMiaSanMia).

Nagelsmann also drew parallels from Bayern’s narrow 3-2 win over Wehen Wiesbaden in the first round of the DFB-Pokal to the Slovakia loss, taking a bit of a dig at the lack of fight he saw from players in his squad, which featured Joshua Kimmich, Leon Goretzka, Serge Gnabry, and Jonathan Tah.

“Why do you think a team like Wiesbaden almost drew 2-2 with FC Bayern? it’s not because they have better quality, but because they showed emotionality and desire,” Nagelsmann pointed out.

Next up for Germany is a home match in Köln against Northern Ireland. It is a must win for them if they don’t want to wind up in a bad spot after the first international break for qualifiers. Northern Ireland won their first match of qualifying 3-1 at Luxembourg.

The German national team hit the road to face Slovakia, looking to get off on the right foot for this round of World Cup qualifier action.

That did not happen.

Julian Nagelsmann — as he is prone to do — did some experimenting with his lineup and it did not work as the team dropped a 2-0 decision. The players were bad, the coaching was not great, and it was not a banner effort overall.

- Tom Adams

FORMER ARSENAL CAPTAIN GRANIT XHAKA CLASHES WITH FANS AFTER BAYER LEVERKUSEN HUMILIATION

Xhaka involved in angry confrontation after Leverkusen were dumped out of the DFB-Pokal by lower-league opposition

Former Arsenal captain Granit Xhaka clashes with a fan (Image credit: Getty Images)

Second-tier Arminia Bielefeld defeated German champions Bayer Leverkusen on Tuesday to reach the DFB-Pokal final for the first time in their history.

Granit Xhaka apparently took exception to the reaction of Leverkusen’s ultras and took them to task in an ugly confrontation after the final whistle.

The heated exchange was caught on camera. Xhaka and the fans shared a special moment, swapping pointed fingers and furious glares in the aftermath of the holders’ defeat against third-tier opposition.

Shrinking violet Granit Xhaka has form with fans

Xhaka healed his relationship with Arsenal fans (Image credit: Jacques Feeney/Offside/Offside via Getty Images)

It was a difficult night for Xabi Alonso and Leverkusen, whose CEO accused Bielefeld of not watering the pitch and called for the authorities to punish them after the embarrassing 2-1 loss.

Double winners last season, Die Schwarzroten infuriated supporters by squandering their last realistic chance of silverware in 2024/25.

They were emphatically knocked out of the Champions League by Bayern Munich in the round of 16 and are six points behind them in the Bundesliga table with seven matches left to play.

Xhaka was instrumental in their historic season and has started all 27 league games this term.

But the 32-year-old’s willingness to get stuck in with his own supporters is legendary and he was never likely to take the ire of the Leverkusen fans lying down.

“The Switzerland international spent seven of his prime years at Arsenal, and not all of them were straightforward,” recalls the Express.

Xhaka made his views clear when Gunners fans jeered him off the pitch against Crystal Palace in 2019.

“I talked back, I cupped an ear, and when I got off the pitch I threw my shirt on the ground and went down the tunnel,” he told The Players’ Tribune later.

“We had been 2–0 up, they made it 2–2, and then I was taken off after about an hour. I had barely begun to move when I heard the boos.

“And it was not just a few guys in the corner – it was a lot of people. I was shocked. I had never experienced anything like this. When I got close to the tunnel, I looked up at the fans sitting there – and this is the part that I will always remember.”

Xhaka ultimately repaired his relationship with Arsenal supporters and left in 2023 with their admiration intact.

He won’t have the same amount of time to do so at Leverkusen but the flashpoint at Bielefeld was the culmination of a frustrating season and both parties will move on from the confrontation quickly.

Xhaka’s part in the team’s remarkable unbeaten season will go a long way to healing the rift in the cold light of day.

- Chris Nee

LEADERS LEIPZIG WILL PUT DORTMUND'S FAITH IN ŞAHIN TO THE TEST

Borussia Dortmund have again dominated the German football headlines this week, and sadly not for the right reasons.

The sense that Schwarzgelben are falling hard continues apace on the back of successive defeats at FC Augsburg and VfL Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal, respectively. That, after under-fire first-year coach Nuri Şahin had been widely criticised -- including in this space -- for his second-half tactical and personnel switches at Real Madrid in the UEFA Champions League that helped turn a 2-0 advantage into a 5-2 defeat.

Saturday's performance in the Fuggerstadt lacked tempo and punch, and BVB got what their uninspiring play deserved after Donyell Malen had given them an early lead. To be charitable, the Wolfsburg trip always looked likely to be laced with difficulties for Şahin, who could barely cobble together a team of fit players and had to improvise by, for example, deploying Pascal Gross at right-back and Julian Brandt as a sitting midfielder.

The fact is, though, Dortmund, after conceding to Wolfsburg substitute Jonas Wind on 117 minutes, have lost lost out on the short route to a trophy and there is scant evidence that the longer journeys necessary to win the Meisterschale or Henkelpott (the German name for the Champions League trophy) will bear any fruit.

Dortmund have put together a strange sequence of results this season: perfect at home in all competitions, while dismal away. On-pitch leadership has been in short supply, whether from goalkeeper Gregor Kobel and club captain Emre Can, which speaks to a certain overall Verunsicherung (uncertainty.)

The good news is Saturday's Topspiel will be in front of 81,365 and of course BVB's famous Gelbe Wand (yellow wall). The bad news is Dortmund's opponents are a very capable RB Leipzig side, coached by Marco Rose. Yes, the same Rose who oversaw the Schwarzgelben in 2021-22 before being unceremoniously dismissed in a move that took many of us by surprise.

Rose, a Leipziger by birth, has been at the RBL helm for more than two years and the fit -- style and personality wise -- just feels right, helped to by a considerable background working at sister club, RB Salzburg.

Level at the top with Bayern Munich are the Bundesliga's Bollwerk (bulwark) with only three goals conceded. Goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi is enjoying one of his best starts to a season, while Willi Orban remains of the most able defensive leaders in the Bundesliga -- in addition to offering a genuine attacking threat at set plays.

Even without Xavi Simons and Xaver Schlager, both out for the medium- to long term, there are enough component parts to put the fear in BVB. Lois Openda, with five league goals to his name this term, was clocked as the fastest player across all Bundesliga games played last week.

Leipzig prevailed in both meetings with Dortmund last season and have been victorious in two of their past three visits to the Signal Iduna Park.

Injuries may again mean a patchwork-quilt quality to BVB, with the possibility of the struggling Can having to line up at right-back in place of Julian Ryerson.

Dortmund fell to their third straight defeat across all competitions on Tuesday with the DFB-Pokal loss at Wolfsburg. Hendrik Deckers/Borussia Dortmund via Getty Images

BVB failed the first test they faced against a German Champions League team when thumped 5-1 by VfB Stuttgart. If it goes completely awry for them on Saturday evening, how much patience will managing director for sport Lars Ricken and CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke have with Şahin? The signals I'm getting are that they still feel it's still too early to make a change, but another defeat would have the alarm bells ringing loudly.

Can Leverkusen-Stuttgart deliver more fireworks?

Ask anyone who avidly follows the Bundesliga which games last season brought the most entertainment, verve and general excitement, and they'll tell you: the epics between Bayer Leverkusen and Stuttgart.

It's no overstatement. Die Schwaben gave the eventual champions the runaround at times in all three competitive meetings, and only a late Jonathan Tah headed winner for Leverkusen in the wild DFB-Pokal quarterfinal the separated them.

Back in August, I witnessed first-hand while commentating for viewers around the world at the BayArena, another night of DFL-Supercup intensity. Again, Leverkusen left it late, this time a Patrik Schick leveller sending the curtain raiser to penalties before die Werkself got to hold aloft their third trophy in 2024.

So, Friday night again under the Bayer-Kreuz promises to be a can't-miss experience.

Xabi Alonso has heavily rotated his squad recently, making eight changes ahead of the past two competitive matches. Tuesday's 3-0 Pokal win over Elversberg saw Leverkusen conserve energy in the second half, clearly with Friday in mind.

It's hard to imagine this not being a night of attacking fireworks with Florian Wirtz, Granit Xhaka and Victor Boniface on one side and then Deniz Undav plus the in-form Jamie Leweling and El Bilal Toure on the other.

Leverkusen CEO Fernando Carro told me a few weeks ago, they always have a shortlist of potential future coaches as a matter of professionalism. If this happensto be Alonso's last season -- and that's by no means definite -- it would be logical to imagine Stuttgart's Sebastian Hoeness appearing at the top of that list.

Bielefeld are, in fact, very real

In the past 30 years in German life, it has become a matter of satire to say that the city of Bielefeld doesn't actually exist. Well, its existence was very real in the DFB-Pokal on Wednesday night as Arminia Bielefeld, now in the 3. Liga, put Union Berlin, currently fourth in the Bundesliga, to the sword.It was my personal favourite Pokal match or the week in front of 26,117 at the Bielefelder Alm.

Bielefeld coach Mitch Kniat promised a game auf Augenhöhe (at eye level) in terms of willingness to run and working against the ball. His players made an energetic start and Marius Wörl's outrageous long-range finish, after an errant pass by Andras Schäfer, put Arminia on their way. Andre Becker added a second goal -- set up by the impressive Wörl -- with just under 20 minutes to go.

You might remember Bielefeld were in the Bundesliga before the Abstieg (demotion) struck in 2022. Thereafter they went sliding straight down to the 3. Liga.

Now they'll fly the flag for the league they play in when the draw for the Pokal third round is made in Dortmund on Sunday by Andre Schnura, who delighted fans all over Germany with his saxophone music during Euro 2024.

- Derek Rae