Germany 2-1 Ivory Coast: Undav's Super-Sub Double Completes the Comeback

For an hour in Toronto, this was going wrong for Germany. Ivory Coast were the sharper, braver side, they led through Franck Kessié, and a four-time world champion looked short of answers. Then Julian Nagelsmann turned to his bench — and Deniz Undav, on for barely half an hour, scored twice to win it 2-1, the second deep into stoppage time. It was a comeback built almost entirely on a substitution.

Ivory Coast deserved their first-half lead. Inspired by the creativity of Yan Diomande, they controlled the early exchanges and went ahead on thirty minutes when Kessié converted after Diomande's low cross carved through the German box. Emerse Faé's side were organised, direct and full of belief — and not flattering themselves either, having already beaten Ecuador in their opener.

Germany, for their part, laboured. The familiar tournament complaint resurfaced — plenty of the ball, too little penetration — and what threat they did muster came to nothing: two first-half goals were chalked off for fouls in the build-up. At the interval, a side expected to cruise through this group trailed and looked devoid of ideas.

The game turned on a triple change just past the hour. Nagelsmann sent on Undav in the sixtieth minute, and the Stuttgart striker brought precisely the sharpness the starting attack had lacked — movement across the back line and an instinct for the half-yard that matters. Within eight minutes he had levelled it.

The equaliser, on sixty-eight, was beautifully taken: a volley dispatched first time from Nadiem Amiri's cross, the kind of clean, decisive contact that had eluded Germany all night. Suddenly the momentum that had belonged to Ivory Coast swung the other way, and the African side — so assured in the first half — found themselves hanging on.

The winner was pure cruelty. With the match deep into the ninety-fourth minute and a point apparently secured, Undav struck again, finishing from Felix Nmecha's pass to send Germany's bench spilling onto the pitch. A draw became a win in the final seconds, and Ivory Coast were left to absorb the harshest possible lesson in game management against elite opposition.

The result carried a real prize: Germany advanced to the knockout stages with a group game still to spare. The starting performance asked the same old questions, but the answer Nagelsmann found — depth, and a substitute who changes the game — is the more important takeaway. Ivory Coast, for all their first-hour excellence, go home from this one with nothing, undone not by a collapse but by a single player off the bench. For Germany, winning ugly and winning late is a habit champions tend to learn.