An exciting second half at Wembley saw England and Germany share the spoils in a pulsating 3-3 draw. A cagey first half burst into life with the visitors going two goals up before Gareth Southgate’s side fought back to lead 3-2. Kai Havertz however made sure Germany didn’t suffer a second successive defeat with am 86th minute equaliser. The two camps have both reacted to the match.
Germany
Hansi Flick: “The first half was even, then we took a deserved lead after the break. We made individual mistakes at 2-0 up and conceded three goals in fairly quick succession, which cannot happen. It was positive that we came back again in the end. Today was a good test for us. We can take a look of positives from the game, but also some negatives that we will have to address.”
Joshua Kimmich: “We were in control and deserved to be ahead. England were simply just waiting for chances on the break. We were too passive after going 2-0 up, defended too deep and didn’t play with enough bravery without the ball. It’s hard to explain. We’ve all got six weeks now to get into our groove and then we’ll go for it.”
Jamal Musiala: “Everyone wants to play at Wembley. It’s an amazing stadium, the atmosphere was great. It was pretty entertaining for the fans as well. After England scored their first, we broke down. They had all the momentum. We can work on that, control the game a bit better.
“England have the quality to turn the game around like they did. We just switched off for a couple of minutes and they punished us. That can’t happen at this level.”
Kai Havertz: “Going 3-2 down after leading 2-0 is concerning. We’ve now got six weeks to cut out our mistakes.”
Ilkay Gündogan: “Reaching the World Cup final is not unrealistic. Lots of things would obviously have to go right, but I don’t think any country is miles ahead of everyone else.”
England
Gareth Southgate: ““We started the game a bit tentatively and you could feel the crowd were with us but wondering how everything would play out. Subconsciously, the team felt that a little bit, we weren’t aggressive enough with our pressing against a team who manipulated the space really well.
“We showed character but also quality, particularly in the goals we scored, and the crowd came with us. They stayed with us, even at 0-2, they didn’t get on their backs and that was so important for us. When we scored, the roof nearly came off, we all remember what it’s like to see a goal go in and we have momentum.”
Harry Kane: “We’ve all been under pressure a little bit with the recent results, and we came out with a point to prove. We have lessons to learn and things to improve but we’ve scored three goals, and this will put us in a positive mood going into the World Cup.
“We are playing Germany at Wembley, that’s always a big game regardless of the competition. It’s a shame we couldn’t go on and get the win but I’m proud of the boys.”
Luke Shaw: “When we went 2-0 down, it felt like the world was against us, but especially this week with the scrutiny the team and the manager have had. It showed the character we had as a team. It could have been easy to fold in that situation, but we showed what a team we are and how good we can be.”
