Hofmann and Germany win, Borussia trio draw with Switzerland

Jonas Hofmann and Florian Neuhaus celebrated a 4-0 win over Iceland with Germany, while Swiss trio Yann Sommer, Nico Elvedi and Denis Zakaria had to make do with a 0-0 draw against Northern Ireland.

“Third game, third win,” were the words of Jonas Hofmann on Wednesday night after a comfortable 4-0 victory over Iceland to round off a successful opening period to Hansi Flick’s era as head coach of the German national team. The three points in Iceland come after a 2-0 win in Liechtenstein and a 6-0 victory over Armenia. While Florian Neuhaus did not make an appearance in any of the three games, Borussia teammate Hofmann was involved in each. The 29-year-old came off the bench with half an hour remaining against Liechtenstein, played the full 90 minutes against Armenia and also started the game against Iceland.

Hofmann was deployed in a defensive role in what was his sixth international cap, before being replaced by Lukas Klostermann at half time with the team 2-0 in front. Following first half goals from Serge Gnabry (5’) and Antonio Rüdiger (24’), Leroy Sané (56’) and Timo Werner’s (89’) goals after the break secured a 4-0 victory. Germany will head into the next fixtures against Romania (8th October) and North Macedonia (11th October) as group leaders.

Borussia trio named in starting XI

Switzerland followed up their 0-0 draw against Italy with another draw of the same scoreline against Northern Ireland on Wednesday evening. All three Borussia players – Yann Sommer, Nico Elvedi (photo: imago images / Beautiful Sports) and Denis Zakaria – were named in the starting lineup. While Sommer, following an outstanding performance against Italy, and Elvedi had a quiet evening in defence, Zakaria was looking to make an impact at the other end of the pitch from midfield.

Despite having around 70% possession, the Swiss side were unable to get on the scoreboard. The best chance fell to Haris Seferovic, whose penalty was saved by Bailey Peacock-Farrell on the half hour mark. Sommer and Elvedi played the full game, while Zakaria was substituted in the 86th minute. Switzerland sit in second place in Group C having taken eight points from four games, ahead of Northern Ireland who have five points from the same amount of fixtures. European champions Italy are top of the group, with 14 points from six games. The two sides will meet again on 9th October, three days before Switzerland travel to take on Lithuania.