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Serbian Luka Jovic, third from right, scores his team's first goal in an international friendly match between Germany and Serbia at the Volkswagen Arena in Wolfsburg, Germany on Wednesday, March 20, 2019 (Martin Meissner / Associated Press)
WOLFSBURG, Germany – For Germany, 2019 has started and 2018 is over – with a disappointing draw.
Leon Goretzka equalized in the second period to allow Germany to recover Wednesday a 1-1 draw against Serbia, four days before the start of its qualifying campaign for the Championship of Europe, in the Netherlands. Low.
This is a difficult test as the Netherlands drew 2-2 against Germany in the last match of the competition and beat Germany 3-0 in October. The Germans won one of seven competitive matches played in 2018, having failed in their reigning world champion group as defending champions and were relegated to second place in the League of Nations.
Coach Joachim Loew tried to shake the team against Serbia, but ended up relying on older faces after a mediocre first period.
Luka Jovic gave the advantage to Serbia in the 12th minute. Indeed, one of Loew's new players, debut defender Lukas Klostermann, missed a clearance and sent the ball directly to the Serbian striker.
It was the first international goal for Jovic, who scored 22 goals for Frankfurt this season, and an encouraging sign for Serbia ahead of his Portugal qualifier on Monday. Serbia could have scored again but Adam Ljajic pulled the bar to ruin a good shot of the team.
Timo Werner, Leroy Sane and Ilkay Gundogan missed a series of good chances for Germany before Goretzka reached a 1-1 score in 69th place from the edge of the box after a pbad from his replacing Marco Reus.
Of the three uncapped players of the team, only Klostermann debuted. As Germany struggled again, Loew decided to leave Maximilian Eggestein of Werder Bremen and Niklas Stark of Hertha Berlin, both midfielders, on the bench.
Klostermann appeared to be injured in the groin late, while Serbian substitute Milan Pavkov was sent off after a stopping play for sinking his stallions into Sane's leg.
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