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Nations League: Mbappe stars as France beat Germany for third spot

By Primenewsghana
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Kylian Mbappe scored his 50th international goal as France beat Nations League hosts Germany in their third-place play-off.

The captain finished well for the 45th-minute opener following a pass from Real Madrid team-mate Aurelien Tchouameni.

And Mbappe set up the second goal six minutes from time when he pounced on a mistake from Robin Koch and unselfishly squared the ball for Michael Olise to slot into the empty net.

Germany had their chances, though, with both a penalty award and goal overturned by the video assistant referee (VAR).

First Karim Adeyemi was awarded a spot-kick after being brought down by France keeper Mike Maignan, but the Germany forward was instead booked for diving after a VAR check.

And then Deniz Undav's effort was disallowed after Niclas Fullkrug was deemed to have fouled Adrien Rabiot in the build-up.

Adeyemi also had three shots saved by Chelsea target Maignan, while Florian Wirtz struck a post.

But France could have added to their goal haul in Stuttgart too. Marcus Thuram's curling strike hit the post, while Mbappe missed the target several times and forced a great save from Marc-Andre ter Stegen.

Julian Nagelsmann's Germany have now failed to win in three games, including Wednesday's semi-final defeat by Portugal.

Captain Joshua Kimmich told RTL: "We should have been leading 3-0 after six minutes. Then we went into the break a goal behind.

"We lost patience too early and lost our structure in the second half. We made too many mistakes and gave them what they wanted."

Spain, who beat France 5-4 in their last-four tie, and Portugal play in the final later on Sunday (20:00 BST) in Munich.

 

BBC