Sports
FLORIAN Wirtz scored after seven seconds as Germany ended a three-game winless run with a comfortable friendly victory over France in Lyon.
The 20-year-old collected Toni Kroos’ pass from kick-off and found the top left corner with a deflected effort.
The Bayer Leverkusen midfielder’s goal is the fastest ever scored by a Germany player.
Kai Havertz turned in Jamal Musiala’s cutback to confirm victory for Julian Nagelsmann’s side.
France’s best opportunity came midway through the first half but Kylian Mbappe skewed his shot wide.
Didier Deschamps’ side rarely looked capable of scoring in the second period until late on when Germany defender Antonio Rudiger turned the ball against his own crossbar as he tried to clear.
However, it was a good evening for the visitors, with Kroos, 34, making an immediate impact on his return – three years after announcing his international retirement – by supplying the pinpoint pass to Wirtz to set them on their way..
It was the youngster’s first goal for his country and would have been the fastest international goal on record had Austria’s Christoph Baumgartner not opened the scoring after six seconds in his country’s friendly against Slovakia earlier on Saturday.
The previous quickest for an international side was Lukas Podolski’s strike for Germany against Ecuador in 2013, which was just over the seven-second mark.
BBC
24th March, 2024.
C.E.
Tags: Antonio Rudiger Florian Wirtz Jamal Musiala Kai Havertz Kylian Mbappe
