AMSTERDAM — Jürgen Klopp is waiting on MRI results for both Kai Havertz and Jamal Musiala after his first match in charge of Germany ended in a 1-1 draw with the Netherlands on Thursday.
Klopp looked to have got off to the perfect start in charge of Germany when Felix Nmecha scored in the 32nd minute. But the Netherlands, under new coach Xavi, equalised late through Cody Gakpo as both sides shared the spoils in their opening match of the UEFA Nations League.
The former Liverpool coach will now be facing a nervous wait over the fitness over Arsenal striker Havertz and Bayern Munich attacker Musiala. Musiala was a late withdrawal from the side with a muscle injury in the warmup, while Havertz was forced off in the 30th minute with what was also described as a muscle injury.
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“Both are currently undergoing an MRI,” Klopp said on RTL. “I hope we get the diagnosis [on Thursday] evening. But of course, this isn’t great. I hope it’s nothing serious. The lads are probably out for us. But hopefully, they’ll be back in action relatively quickly.”
Klopp said Nick Woltemade or Jonathan Burkardt may be called up for the next match with Greece on Sunday. In his first match in charge of the national team, Klopp said he wasn’t nervous in his new role as Germany coach, and said muscle memory kicked in as he was back in manager mode.
When asked if he had a chance to enjoy it, Klopp said: “I enjoy moments when it’s 4-0 up and you see extra time. As coaches, it’s our job to be 100% there and try to find a way to help. Nobody has to worry about me before this game — it would be strange to stand out there and say, where’s the pitch? We had a great game.
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“Whatever result we got, we have to work with it. If someone said you’d get a draw, we’d take that. I feel we lost two points. I understand Xavi thought they could’ve won. I’m fine with tonight.”
Klopp said the match was like his first game in charge of Liverpool where he had limited time to work with his new players.
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“It was a wild game, two days training,” Klopp said. “You need more than two days to develop a new way of football. We only scratched the surface, we have to go deeper.
“What we did is, we have a good way to build a group. And from there we go. We had injuries and we could react. The boys who came on, they did so well. There were a lot of good signs — we should not draw the next 500 games or else I could go back to playing padel.”
