Germany was stunned by its first loss under its new coach, Jurgen Klopp, against its guest, Greece, 0-1, on Sunday, in the second round of the European Nations League Group B competitions.
After being denied victory at the beginning of Klopp's career with a fatal goal against the Netherlands (1-1), Germany continued its setback, having lost its last match in the group stage of the North American World Cup (1-2 against Ecuador), before being eliminated by Paraguay on penalties in the round of 32.
Mannschaft's score froze at one point in the group, which was topped by Greece, which won over its host Serbia 2-1 in the first round, while the Netherlands came in second after the second round after defeating Serbia also with the same result.
Klopp assumed the position of coach of the four-time world champions, succeeding Julian Nagelsmann in July, and chose to summon 44 players to his first camp in an unusual step, as national teams’ rosters are usually limited to 20 field players and three goalkeepers.
But the former Liverpool coach justified his decision to choose two separate squads to play four matches in the Nations League, as Germany plays its next two matches at home with Serbia and away with Greece again.
This is Germany's first loss in the history of its confrontations with Greece, after it had won seven of the previous matches and drawn three matches.
In Augsburg, Klopp started the match without Kai Havertz after he was injured and withdrew from the camp, similar to Jamal Musiala, who also did not play the first match.
The former Borussia Dortmund coach relied on striker Younes Bentaleb in a squad in which five names were changed from the first confrontation.
Despite almost complete control of the first half, the German team only shot once on the visitors' goal.
In the second half, Bambis Conte and Joshua Kimmich tried to score the Greek net, but their attempts did not pose a major threat to goalkeeper Konstantinos Tzoulakis (50 and 53).
Klopp brought in Jonathan Burkhardt and Florian Wirtz (65) to strengthen the attack, but the visitors woke up and threatened the German goal with a Fotis Ioannidis shot near the right post (68).
The surprise came with a goal from substitute Dimitrios Kourbelis, who received the ball on the outskirts of the penalty area, after which he passed Felix Nemecha and shot it creeping to the right of goalkeeper Alexander Nubel (74).
Klopp quickly brought on Serge Gnabry (76), followed by Hennis Burns and Anton Stach (84), and the former almost equalized the score with a shot from the outskirts of the area, but Tzoulakis cleared it, and Vangelis Pavlidis responded with a shot over the crossbar two minutes before the end of the match.
The English club Liverpool suffered a painful blow during the international break, after its striker Cody Khakpo was injured in the Netherlands national team’s confrontation with Serbia in the European Nations League.
The Netherlands national team won over Serbia 2-1, and Khakpo was forced to leave the field due to injury, as he did not complete more than 20 minutes in the match before he was replaced, adding a new crisis to the team of coach Andoni Iraola after a setback suffered by Swedish striker Alexander Isak.
Press reports stated that Khakpo left the match that was held in Belgrade, where he was subjected to strong interference from Sasha Lukic, the Serbian national team player, and left the field while the score indicated a goalless draw after 17 minutes.
Although Khakpo tried to continue playing, he pointed to the bench, explaining his inability to continue 5 minutes after receiving treatment on the field, so he came out and was replaced by young striker Robin van Bommel.
Pictures appeared of Khakpo holding his ankle before the Dutch national team’s medical staff intervened. What worried Liverpool.
Spain won the FIFA Women's Under-20 World Cup, after defeating North Korea 4-3 on penalty kicks, after a goalless draw in the final of the tournament that concluded Sunday in Poland.
The Spanish national team won the title for the second time in its history, after previously winning the title in 2022, and it succeeded in stripping the North Korean national team of the title that it won in 2024.
The Spanish team is now in second place among the teams that have won the title the most with two wins, behind the American, German and North Korean teams with three wins each.
The two teams did not succeed in translating the opportunities afforded to each of them into goals throughout the 90 minutes, so two additional periods were resorted to, during which nothing new happened, and penalty kicks were resorted to, which smiled at Spain, which won 4-3.
On its way to winning the title for the second time in its history, Spain beat Nigeria 2-0, then beat New Caledonia 11-0 and beat China 1-3 in the group stage.
In the round of sixteen, Spain defeated Portugal 2-0, then faced Brazil in the quarter-finals but beat them 1-0, then beat Italy 2-0 in the semi-finals.
