
Germany registered their second win under the new coach Hansi Flick in Stuttgart on Sunday night. Florian Wirtz started on the bench. Serge Gnabry (2), Marco Reus and Timo Werner put Germany 4-0 up in the first half and Jonas Hofmann increased the lead at the start of the second 45. Flick made a double substitution on the hour mark with Wirtz coming on for Marco Reus. The Leverkusen player was involved in the sixth and final goal scored by Karim-David Adeyemi as he provided a first assist for the Germany senior team with an excellent one-two setting up Adeyemi.
Chile played Ecuador in the capital Quito last night – the game ended all square at 0-0. Charles Aránguiz started the match but went off injured on 82 minutes. The extent of the injury is unclear.
There was a bizarre incident in Sao Paulo late on Sunday evening in the South America clash between Brazil and Argentina. The match was stopped after seven minutes when health authority staff appeared on the touchline to take three Argentinean players off the pitch. Those players, plus a substitute, had allegedly breached quarantine regulations on entering Brazil. After about an hour, the South American Football Association CONMEBOL finally announced the game would be abandoned. Exequiel Palacios was not in the starting eleven. It remains to be seen what happens with the match.
Greece drew 1-1 with Kosovo on Sunday evening; Panos Retsos did not feature in Pristina.
Pohjanpalo scores the winner
Finland faced Kazakhstan in Helsinki on Saturday. Joel Pohjanpalo, who signed a one-year loan deal with Turkish top-flight club Caykur Rizespor on Sunday, scored the only goal of the game on 60 minutes. Lukas Hradecky in goal kept a clean sheet for his team.
Moussa Diaby was in action with France against Ukraine. That was his second inclusion in the senior squad – and for the second time the France coach Didier Deschamps brought on the 21-year-old. Diaby replaced Kingsley Coman on 63 minutes in Kiev. There was no change to the score after he came on with a shot from Diaby only hitting the post (78’).
Andrey Lunev had a quiet Saturday night – he watched Russia take on Cyprus from the subs bench. The match in Nicosia ended in a goalless draw.

The meeting between fifth and sixth on Saturday afternoon (17 January, 15:30 CET) is a hard one to predict. While the Werkself can take confidence from their historic record at TSG Hoffenheim, the hosts are currently enjoying their second-best Bundesliga campaign and have lost just one of their last 10 games. Another good omen for Bayer 04: Daniel Schlager also refereed Leverkusen's last victory in Sinsheim (4-1). The Matchday News.
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At the end of the winter training camp in Portugal, the Bayer 04 Women convincingly mastered their friendly ahead of the start of the second half of the season. In the match against Swiss league leaders Servette FCCF, coach Roberto Pätzold's team won 3-0 at the Monte Gordo Sports Complex. Carlotta Wamser (4’), Vanessa Fudalla (18’) and Loreen Bender (53’) scored for Bayer 04, who have been preparing for the Rückrunde in the Algarve since last Saturday.
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The German Football League (DFL) has rescheduled the postponed fixture at Hamburger SV on Bundesliga matchday 17. The match, due to be played on Tuesday, has now been rescheduled for Wednesday, 4 March (kick-off: 20:30 CET).
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The Rückrunde is about to begin: The Werkself travel to TSG Hoffenheim on Saturday, 17 January (kick-off: 15:30 CET) on Bundesliga matchday 18. At the pre-match press conference on Friday lunchtime, head coach Kasper Hjulmand emphasised the double anticipation for the clash following Tuesday's postponement of the fixture at Hamburger SV. And he also talked about the tactical approach against an opponent on course for Champions League qualification.
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TSG Hoffenheim have had a tremendous season so far and are in absolute top form going into the new year. After another outstanding display against Borussia Mönchengladbach on Wednesday, TSG went above Bayer 04 in the table. On Saturday, 17 January (kick-off: 15:30 CET), coach Christian Ilzer's team will be looking to continue their run in the league against the Werkself. The lowdown on our next opponents.
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