Tag: Germany

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Nations League: Yamal shines as Spain edge France in nine-goal thriller

Spain booked their place in the UEFA Nations League final with a dramatic 5-4 victory over France on Thursday in Stuttgart, setting up a clash with Portugal, who defeated Germany 2-1 a day earlier.

The Spaniards raced into an early lead with goals from Nico Williams and Mikel Merino in the 22nd and 25th minutes respectively, both assisted by Mikel Oyarzabal.

The momentum remained with Spain as 16-year-old sensation Lamine Yamal converted from the penalty spot in the 54th minute to make it 3-0.

Just a minute later, Pedri added a fourth goal after another fine move involving Williams, putting Spain in complete control of the semi-final.

Although Kylian Mbappé reduced the deficit with a penalty in the 59th minute, Yamal responded almost immediately with his second of the night in the 67th minute to restore Spain’s four-goal advantage at 5-1.

France, however, mounted a fierce late comeback. Rayan Cherki struck in the 79th minute, followed by an own goal from Dani Vivian in the 84th.

Substitute Randal Kolo Muani added a fourth in stoppage time, assisted by Cherki, but it proved too little too late for Didier Deschamps’ side.

Meanwhile, in Munich on Wednesday, Portugal came from behind to defeat Germany 2-1. Florian Wirtz opened the scoring for the hosts in the 48th minute, but Francisco Conceicao levelled for Portugal in the 63rd before Cristiano Ronaldo secured the win five minutes later with a decisive goal in the 68th.

Following their respective victories, Portugal and Spain will meet in the final on Sunday at the Allianz Arena in Munich by 1900 GMT, while Germany will face France in the third-place play-off at the MHPArena in Stuttgart by 1300 GMT. (Punch)

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Bayern Munich win Bundesliga title to end Harry Kane’s trophy wait

Harry Kane ended his long wait for the first team trophy of his career as Bayern Munich clinched the Bundesliga title – without playing – on Sunday.

Bayern’s celebrations were dramatically put on hold a day earlier when Yussef Poulsen scored a stoppage-time goal to earn RB Leipzig a 3-3 draw and make the leaders wait.

But Leverkusen, who had to win at Freiburg on Sunday to mathematically stay in the hunt, were held to a 2-2 draw that crowned the Bavarians this weekend after all.

Kane was forced to watch on against RB Leipzig after picking up a fifth yellow card of the season, moving to the touchline in expectation before Poulsen spoiled the party in the 94th minute.

But the 31-year-old England captain will be back for Saturday’s home game against Monchengladbach as Bayern can look forward to celebrating with their fans at the Allianz.

Kane has played a huge role in securing Bayern’s 34th league crown, topping the Bundesliga scoring charts with 24 goals, but in his 15th season as a pro – and two years after leaving boyhood club Tottenham – he has finally got his hands on silverware.

After 11 straight Bundesliga titles, Bayern fell short last season in Kane’s first year with the club, when invincible Bayer Leverkusen finished top. But Bayern have regained the championship this time with two rounds remaining.

Kane, who has lost Champions League and Carabao Cup finals at club level and twice lost European finals with England, has broken goal-scoring records in Germany but now has the team title he has craved.

Bayern boss Vincent Kompany, who won the Championship with Burnley in 2022/23, has claimed his first major honour as a manager, while Kane’s former England and Tottenham team-mate Eric Dier is also celebrating the first team trophy of his career. (SkySports)

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Mother and child die from injuries after Munich car attack

A mother, 37, and her two-year-old daughter have died from injuries they sustained in Thursday’s car attack in the German city of Munich, police say.

At least 37 people were injured when a car was driven into a crowd of people at a trade union rally.

The driver was a 24-year-old Afghan asylum seeker, police said, identified in local media as Farhad N.

He was arrested at the scene and prosecutors say he has admitted to carrying out the attack. He appeared to have a religious motivation, officials said.

The mother and child were among those taken to hospital with serious injuries following the attack.

Authorities have said the suspect arrived in Germany in 2016 and, although his application for asylum was turned down, he was allowed to stay in Germany as he faced risks being deported back to Afghanistan. He had a valid residence and work permit.

He had no previous criminal record, and police said there was no evidence of a link to a jihadist group. He also appears to have acted alone, German authorities say.

On Friday, police said the suspect told officers during questioning that he had driven his Mini Cooper car intentionally into the crowd.

Munich public prosecutor Gabriele Tilmann told reporters that the suspect had said “Allahu Akbar” – God is greatest in Arabic – when he was detained. She suggested he “may have had an Islamist motivation”.

Campaigning around Germany’s election on 23 February has for weeks been embroiled in a fevered debate about migration. It was called due to the collapse of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition government last year.

A number of violent incidents linked to migrants over the past year have led to increased support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

In December, six people were killed and at least 299 injured after a man drove a car into a German Christmas market.

The suspect was a 50-year-old Saudi asylum seeker who had been an outspoken critic of Islam.

And in January an attack that shocked the country saw a two-year-old child and a passer-by who attempted to intervene killed after a group of children were stabbed in a park in the Bavarian town of Aschaffenburg.

The suspect in that attack is a 28-year-old Afghan asylum seeker. (BBC)

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Merkel criticises her party leader after far-right vote

Germany’s former Chancellor Angela Merkel has criticised her own party leader for passing a motion in parliament with support from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).

In a statement, Merkel accused CDU leader Friedrich Merz of turning his back on a previous pledge not to work with AfD in the Bundestag.

The parliament descended into heckles on Wednesday after votes from the far-right party meant a non-binding CDU motion on tougher immigration rules was passed.

This is a highly unusual intervention by the woman who led Germany for 16 years, stepping in to criticise the actions of her former political rival.

Merz, who is tipped to be Germany’s next chancellor due to CDU’s lead in the polls, said on Wednesday that a policy was not wrong just because the “wrong people back it” and that he had not sought nor wanted AfD’s support.

But Merkel accused him of breaking a pledge he made in November to work with the Social Democratic Party and the Greens to pass legislation, not AfD.

This was to ensure “neither in determining the agenda nor in voting on the matter here in the House will there be a random or actually brought about majority with those from the AfD,” read a quote from Merz in Merkel’s statement.

The former chancellor said she fully supported this earlier “expression of great state political responsibility”.

“I think it is wrong to no longer feel bound by this proposal and thereby knowingly allow the AfD to gain a majority in a vote in the German Bundestag on 29 January 2025 for the first time.”

She said “all democratic parties” needed to work together “to do everything they can to prevent such terrible attacks in the future as those that took place shortly before Christmas in Magdeburg and a few days ago in Aschaffenburg”.

This is a rare intervention from Merkel.

To openly criticise her own party’s candidate for chancellor – just weeks out from an election – is a big move and will add rocket fuel to a an already explosive story in German politics.

Merkel and Merz go back a long way – and not as the best of friends.

He was famously side-lined by Merkel in the early 2000s after she won out in a CDU power struggle.

Merz would go on to quit front-line politics for many years before making his return. (BBC)