Jamie Leweling celebrates a dream debut in the Nations League and shoots Germany into the quarter-finals against the Netherlands. However, national coach Julian Nagelsmann had not actually planned for him to play.
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- Jamie Leweling unexpectedly makes his international debut against the Netherlands, is even allowed to play from the start and actually turns out to be the match-winner.
- The VfB Stuttgart midfielder was praised from all sides after the final whistle. "Jamie has to be singled out today, and not just because of his goal," emphasized captain Joshua Kimmich.
- Coach Julian Nagelsmann admits that he hadn't planned to play the 23-year-old in Munich: "If everyone had been healthy, he wouldn't have been involved."
In the fourth match of the current Nations League campaign, Germany recorded their third win on Monday to secure an early place in the quarter-finals. Stuttgart's Jamie Leweling was the unexpected match-winner against the Netherlands. In his first ever international match, the Stuttgart player made the difference with his cracking finish in the 64th minute.
"Jamie has to be singled out today, and not just because of his goal. It's not often that the Allianz Arena stands and applauds when someone makes their debut," said Germany captain Joshua Kimmich after the final whistle. In fact, the whole stadium in Munich was standing when Leweling was given a well-deserved send-off after 86 minutes.
Nagelsmann proved wrong
Julian Nagelsmann was impressed by the 23-year-old's performance. "He not only scored the goal, but also had to solve many difficult situations. It was an exceptionally good debut," enthused the DFB coach, revealing: "I told him yesterday that I was still missing the level of energy he showed at VfB here. Then he proved me wrong today."
Just a few days ago, there were no signs of Leweling's dream debut. Nagelsmann only called him into the squad retrospectively for the injured Bayern star Jamal Musiala. "If everyone had been healthy, he wouldn't have been there," said the young coach. As team-mate Deniz Undav was also absent on the day, Leweling even made the starting eleven against the Dutch side.
"I was scared again"
However, the Stuttgart native knows nothing about his luck until the team meeting. "We thought about whether to tell him in the morning or surprise him later when we had the meeting. We surprised him," says Nagelsmann. And the newcomer doesn't let himself be caught on the wrong foot. "I was just happy to be able to play," says Leweling. "As soon as you go on the pitch, all you think about is football."
Leweling didn't have any problems getting started and put the ball in the Netherlands' box for the first time in the 2nd minute. However, the goal was disallowed after a controversial offside decision. The goalscorer also had to tremble when he scored his second regular goal: "Schlotti (Schlotterbeck, editor's note) came to me first and said that he was offside. I was afraid again that it wouldn't count. But luckily it counted this time."
