Nick Woltemade's first international goal sees Germany edge Northern Ireland

Nick Woltemade’s first international goal condemned Northern Ireland to a 1-0 World Cup qualifying defeat to Germany at Windsor Park.

Newcastle’s £69million forward turned in David Raum’s 31st-minute corner with the back of his shoulder – unorthodox perhaps but enough to settle a hard-fought contest in which Michael O’Neill’s young side showed no fear against their illustrious opponents on the night of his 100th game in charge.

Julian Nagelsmann spent Sunday insisting he had meant no disrespect to Northern Ireland when discussing their “long ball” tactics last month, but the hosts went toe-to-toe with Germany and saw a Daniel Ballard strike chalked off for offside.

All the same, a seven-game unbeaten run at Windsor Park ended as an 11th straight loss to the Germans left them three points behind both Germany and Slovakia going into the final qualifiers next month. Their safety net of a potential qualifying play-off via the Nations League may yet be needed.

But O’Neill is likely to take heart from another valiant display from a side whose average age at kick-off was under 25. Brodie Spencer replaced the suspended Conor Bradley in the only change from Friday’s 2-0 win over Slovakia.

Northern Ireland were struggling to get out of their half in the early exchanges but out of nowhere had the ball in the net in the 14th minute before an offside flag curtailed celebrations.

Ballard lashed home a loose ball after both Paddy McNair and Jamie Reid failed to connect properly on Bailey Peacock-Farrell’s long free-kick into the box, but McNair was offside when Ballard got the initial flick-on.

Germany slowly regained the upper hand, then gained the lead with their 50th ever goal against Northern Ireland. Woltemade leapt to meet Raum’s