Belgium won Germany 3-2 in a friendly match on Tuesday, making it team victorious in the last two matches played in the past four days, and earning a win over the Euro 2024 hosts for the first time since 1954.
Germany and Belgium both played eagerly to prove their worth after their shocking group-stage World Cup exits in December. However, after the final whistle blew, it was Belgium who was on the better side, attacking at will and completely pressing on Germany in the first half.
They took the lead at the RheinEnergieStadion in Cologne with an outstanding five-pass move from deep in their own half as Yannick Carrasco, unmarked and with lots of space on the left rifled home in the sixth minute.
Before the hosts had any time to recover, Belgium scored again after some more poor German defending, with Kevin De Bruyne slipping the ball through to Romelu Lukaku to finish from inside the box.
The Belgium striker Romelu Lukaku had also scored a hat trick in their 3-0 win over Sweden in their opening Group F Euro 2024 qualifier on Friday and he could have added another goal in the 20th when he hit the bar with a powerful header.
The Germans, who defeated Peru 2 goals to none on Saturday in their first international match since their World Cup exit in Qatar, earned a penalty on the stroke of half-time, and forward Niclas Fullkrug converted for his sixth goal in six international matches.
Despite a vibrant second half, the hosts conceded a third as De Bruyne finished from another swift Belgium move as the German defense was caught unawares once again.
Serge Gnabry scored in the 88th minute, but it was not enough to stop the new Belgium coach Domenico Tedesco and his team from having a second victory in two matches.
Speaking on their performance, Germany coach Hansi Flick said, “We were far too passive and did not put them under any pressure,” said Germany coach Hansi Flick. We had to change things around a bit to find stability.”
“You could see that we have a lot of work in front of us. We want to be more active and we did it better after about 30 minutes. For us, with an eye on the future, that’s where we have to work on. For everyone to work together.”