Undav's 94th-minute winner off the bench sends Germany into the last 32

A goal from the bench, past the 90th minute

For an hour, Germany were the team in trouble. Franck Kessie had put Ivory Coast ahead, and Julian Nagelsmann's side, unbeaten and expected to cruise, could not break a disciplined African opponent. On the hour Nagelsmann made a triple change, and the game turned. Eight minutes later Deniz Undav volleyed in a Nadiem Amiri cross to level it. Then, in the 94th minute, with a draw looking certain, Undav took Felix Nmecha's pass and finished low for 2-1. Germany had not played well, but they had won, and they were through.

Germany's closer

Undav did not start either of Germany's first two matches, and he has still shaped both. In the opener, a 7-1 win over World Cup debutants Curacao, he came off the bench to score and set one up. Against Ivory Coast he came on and scored twice. That gives the Stuttgart striker three goals and two assists as a substitute at this World Cup. Opta recorded it as the most goal involvements by a substitute at a single tournament since 1966, level with Cameroon's Roger Milla at Italia 1990. For readers who do not follow the Bundesliga closely, the short version is simple: Germany now have a forward whose job is to come on and decide the game, and so far he has.

How the German press read Nagelsmann's bench

The German coverage focused less on the scoreline than on the substitutions that produced it. kicker gathered the next-day press reaction under the line that Germany were back where they belong. The match reports treated Nagelsmann's 60th-minute triple change as the decision that won the game, and praised the impact of the players he sent on. Nagelsmann himself singled out Nmecha, the man who set up the winner, saying he had everything needed to decide a match. After the Curacao win the coach had talked about a team that needed convincing performances to build belief; against Ivory Coast the belief was supplied late, and from the bench. Germany have now won ten games in a row.

Where this fits in the tournament

Germany are the third team to secure a place in the round of 32, after the two host nations: Mexico, who beat South Korea on 18 June, and the United States, who beat Australia the next day. In the 48-team format the knockouts open at a round of 32, and the early qualifiers are a useful first read on which sides are pulling clear. Among the other group favourites already in strong positions is the Netherlands, in Japan's Group F. What is still open is closer to home for Germany: whether Nagelsmann, with a knockout place banked, now starts Undav in the final group game or keeps holding him back as the player he brings on to finish matches.