Watch: Nick Woltemade off the mark for Germany as Newcastle United star scores in win over Northern Ireland
Nick Woltemade has been in scintillating form for Newcastle United this season, but back home in Germany, the 6'6" striker has had a hard time winning people over.
It feels like the system Newcastle plays suits Woltemade down to the ground, but it has been harder for the 23-year-old to adapt to the way Julian Nagelsmann sets up his national side.
Despite that, Nagelsmann has persisted with Woltemade even if the striker has come in for a fair bit of criticism as he went in search of his first senior goal for his country.
Thankfully, that search is now over after Woltemade nodded home the only goal of the game as Germany beat Northern Ireland last night.
Nick Woltemade is off the mark for Germany
When Nick Woltemade signed for Newcastle, we were told not to expect him to be much of an aerial threat despite his size, and now two of his goals for the Magpies have come from his head, and his first senior Germany goal has too.
Woltemade rose above the crowd to flick on an inch-perfect corner just inside the far post, giving his side the lead on 31 minutes, which is how the score remained. At least that's how it looked initially, but replays showed that it actually came off his shoulder.
It was obviously a huge moment for Woltemade, especially amid all of the criticism from his homeland, not just for his lack of national team goals, but also for his transfer to Newcastle.
Nick Woltemade spoke of his goal as a 'really important' moment
Speaking after the game, Woltemade spoke to dfb.de about how pleased he was to break his duck, finally.
"That goal was really important for me. My first appearances for the national side hadn’t gone as I’d hoped. Maybe it’s quite fitting then that I scored with my shoulder. It was important for us to get three points out of a scrappy game. We’ve worked really hard on our set pieces and it’s nice that we managed to score from one. It makes us a bit more unpredictable. I’ve gotten more used to that sort of physicality since moving to the Premier League – I quite enjoy it when there’s a lot of duels and challenges."
Heads, shoulders, knees or toes, they all count, Nick.
