TORONTO, ONT – An hour into the game, Germany was getting outplayed by Ivory Coast and trailed by a goal.
Coach Julian Nagelsmann needed a spark and substituted in three fresh players, one of whom was Deniz Undav. That decision paid off big time.
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Undav scored twice as Germany defeated Ivory Coast 2-1 on Saturday and clinched a spot in the knockout phase at the World Cup.
“It’s important that everyone sees that even the players from the bench can decide games,” said Undav, who also scored in Germany’s 7-1 opening match rout of Curacao. “Now we have a really important signal to the team. I think that’s very important in a game like this.”
Four minutes into stoppage time, Undav received a pass from Felix Nmecha in front of the net and rifled it past Ivory Coast goalkeeper Yahia Fofana to give the Germans a comeback win. It was the German national team’s 11th straight win, a streak dating to September 2025.
Undav’s first goal of the match came after Nadiem Amiri sent in a long ball – that striker Kai Havertz let pass him by – onto the boot of Undav, who slammed it into the back of the net in the 68th minute. Both Amiri and Undav had subbed on eight minutes earlier.
“Deniz is nobody who needs to be prepared,” Nagelsmann said. “He can jump in right away.”
Four-time champion Germany has come back from disappointing group stage exits in 2018 and 2022, while Ivory Coast is still searching for its first knockout stage appearance and could still qualify. The last time Germany got past the group stage it won the tournament in 2014.
“Think we showed great character today,” Undav said. “We want to achieve the most.”
Ivory Coast captain Franck Kessie opened the scoring in the 30th minute after midfielder Yan Diomande sent in a cross to forward Amad Diallo. His shot was blocked by Germany’s Nathaniel Brown, but the ball bounced back to Kessie, who slotted it in the wide-open left corner of the net.
Germany had two goals waved off in a frustrating first half. The first was in the 21st minute when Fofana batted the ball into his own net, but Germany midfielder Aleksander Pavlovic made illegal contact with Fofana on the play.
The second came in the 38th minute on a foul, as Jamal Musiala was called for contact on the build-up to what would’ve been a Havertz goal.
After a court fight to get into Canada, Elye Wahi, the Ivory Coast striker under investigation for alleged betting-related offenses while playing in France for Nice, did not play.
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Lexie Linderman is a student in the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism at Penn State.
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AP World Cup: https://apnews.com/fifa-world-cup