Germany, the "German powerhouse," suffered a shock 2-0 defeat to Slovakia in their opening match of Group A of the 2026 World Cup European qualifiers, conceding goals in both halves. In a post-match interview, German midfielder Joshua Kimmich stated that his team lacked courage and stated that if they continued playing in this manner, they would not qualify for the World Cup.

In the 42nd minute of the game, Streiker made a triangle pass from the penalty area, and Hanczko received the ball and shot it into the net, giving Slovakia the first goal with a 1-0 lead.

In the 55th minute of the second half, Slovakia goalkeeper Dubravka kicked off, Norbert Choombo headed the ball, Strecker received it and shot from the penalty area against Rudiger's defense to score, helping Slovakia expand its lead to 2-0.

Germany was still unable to score in the following period and was eventually defeated 0-2 by Slovakia in an away game.

Kimmich, who plays for Bayern Munich, said, "We didn't show courage at any stage of the game. We really lacked a lot of performance. At this point, it's meaningless to talk about tactics. It's not about the 3-back or 4-back system. It's a matter of attitude. We must do better in the next game and support each other to make it easier for everyone to play."

"We shouldn't blame each other, but we also know that this was a very bad game. We talked a lot about the World Cup and titles, but if we play like we did today, we won't qualify."

In addition, Yonatan Ta said, "We had problems throughout the game and we had almost no control, so this loss was completely deserved by us and this performance was really bad."

"We have to analyse this game and reflect on ourselves. This situation was a surprise to all of us and we have to reflect on ourselves seriously."