Deniz Undav’s double earns Germany dramatic late win against Côte d’Ivoire

For the first time in more than a decade, Germany will play in the World Cup knockout stages. Their 2-1 victory at the death over Côte d’Ivoire in a lively tie here on Saturday saw to that. Franck Kessié’s 30th-minute goal for Les Éléphants was cancelled out by Deniz Undav’s 68th-minute equaliser and 94th-minute winner for Die Mannschaft. The victory put the four-time world champions on six points, although the youngest team at this tournament gave the Germans a far tougher test than in the 7-1 crunching of Curaçao six days ago. Before 2018, Germany had never been eliminated in a World Cup group stage. No other nation has reached as many semi-finals as Die Mannschaft, with 13 – only Brazil are close at 11. And yet, in Russia, a pair of losses condemned the Germans to their worst World Cup performance ever. In Qatar, four years later, they failed again, going out in the group. An edition expanded to 48 teams and graduating no fewer than 32 to the knockout stages never seemed likely to trip Julian Nagelsmann and his men up for a third time running. But then there were also plenty of concerns around this non-vintage edition of this accomplished side. …