{"id":22989,"date":"2022-06-05T08:18:31","date_gmt":"2022-06-05T08:18:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/?p=22989"},"modified":"2022-06-05T08:18:31","modified_gmt":"2022-06-05T08:18:31","slug":"nations-league-kimmich-earns-germany-point-against-new-look-italy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/2022\/06\/05\/nations-league-kimmich-earns-germany-point-against-new-look-italy\/","title":{"rendered":"Nations League: Kimmich earns Germany point against new-look Italy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joshua Kimmich\u2019s well-taken equaliser earned\u00a0Germany<\/strong>\u00a0a 1-1 draw with\u00a0Italy<\/strong>\u00a0in their Nations League opener, ensuring his side remain unbeaten under their coach, Hansi Flick. Hungary lead League A Group Three after their\u00a01-0 victory over England\u00a0in Budapest.<\/p>\n

Italy fielded an experimental side for their match in Bologna and gave Flick\u2019s team a real test. Lorenzo Pellegrini edged the hosts in front after 70 minutes, but Kimmich pounced three minutes later to deliver his side a point. Germany host England next in the\u00a0Nations League on Tuesday, with Italy facing Hungary.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a pity we conceded the equaliser straight after; we were naive, because it was not an easy game, especially at the start,\u201d the\u00a0Italy\u00a0coach, Roberto Mancini, told Rai Sport. \u201cIt was the first time these players played together, they did a great job, they suffered when they had to, attacked when they had to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mancini mixed things up after\u00a0Italy\u2019s 3-0 defeat by Argentina\u00a0in the Finalissima, with only the goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma keeping his place in the starting XI. But the new-look Italy impressed, with the Sassuolo striker Gianluca Scamacca going close to a first-half opener when his well-hit strike clipped the post. The visitors wasted a glorious opportunity of their own in the opening half, with Serge Gnabry firing over from a good position.<\/p>\n

Mancini continued to blood young players after the break, with one debutant \u2013 18-year-old Wilfried Gnonto \u2013 setting up Pellegrini to give Italy the lead. But sloppy defending then cost Italy dear as they failed to clear a loose ball in the penalty area and Kimmich levelled.<\/p>\n

The hosts pressed for a late winner but settled for a point as Flick became the third coach in the history of the\u00a0Germany\u00a0team to stay undefeated in his first 10 matches after Sepp Herberger and Josef Derwall.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Wilfried<\/div>
Wilfried Gnonto makes an impact on his Italy debut.<\/span>\u00a0Photograph: DeFodi Images\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
<\/div>\n

In League B Group Three,\u00a0Bosnia-Herzegovina<\/strong>\u00a0scored a stoppage-time equaliser to draw 1-1 in\u00a0Finland<\/strong>, while\u00a0Montenegro<\/strong>\u00a0went top with a 2-0 win against\u00a0Romania<\/strong>. League C Group One saw\u00a0Turkey<\/strong>\u00a0ease to a 4-0 victory over\u00a0Faroe Islands<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Luxembourg<\/strong>\u00a0win 2-0 in\u00a0Lithuania<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Switzerland<\/strong>\u2019s coach, Murat Yakin, has denied a rift with his captain, Granit Xhaka, who was critical of the team\u2019s tactics after they were beaten by the\u00a0Czech Republic<\/strong>\u00a0in the Nations League on Thursday. Yakin said Xhaka\u2019s comments were misread and accused critics of seeking to disrupt the team as they prepare to take on Portugal in Lisbon on Sunday in their second League A Group Two match.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve listened to his statements and I don\u2019t see that as a criticism of my tactics at all,\u201d Yakin said. \u201cIt is important to listen to how the question that was put to him was worded exactly. I\u2019ve discussed his position. They\u2019re trying to drive a wedge between us, which I don\u2019t understand at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Xhaka, who has 101 caps for the country, said after the 2-1 loss in Prague that he felt he should be allowed to play deeper in midfield than the coach had dictated by his tactics. \u201cI don\u2019t understand all the fuss,\u201d Yakin said. \u201cGranit always wants to play, but I\u2019ll wait for the [Saturday] training session and won\u2019t announce the lineup until tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Joshua Kimmich\u2019s well-taken equaliser earned\u00a0Germany\u00a0a 1-1 draw with\u00a0Italy\u00a0in their Nations League opener, ensuring his side remain unbeaten under their coach, Hansi Flick. Hungary lead League A Group Three after their\u00a01-0 victory over England\u00a0in Budapest. Italy fielded an experimental side for their match in Bologna and gave Flick\u2019s team a real test. Lorenzo Pellegrini edged the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":23009,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3295],"tags":[11261,4173,11288,7556,8908,5714,2200,1258,5335,66,803,9692,12234,5626,1392,3874,1974,7181,8126,10481,12085,6973,11973,5155,13256,1975,2219,8709,3380,5818,5348,2570,6348,10885,594,7898,5140],"class_list":["post-22989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-sport","tag-accused","tag-argentina","tag-bosnia","tag-budapest","tag-coach","tag-czech-republic","tag-donnarumma","tag-england","tag-finland","tag-germany","tag-goalkeeper","tag-granit-xhaka","tag-host","tag-hungary","tag-italy","tag-lead","tag-lisbon","tag-lithuania","tag-match","tag-midfield","tag-nations","tag-nations-league","tag-one","tag-pellegrini","tag-players","tag-portugal","tag-roberto","tag-romania","tag-sassuolo","tag-strike","tag-switzerland","tag-turkey","tag-us","tag-victory","tag-who","tag-xi","tag-young"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}