"?Joachim Low has confessed that he brought Bastian Schweinsteiger on to slow down the tempo of Germany's match against Ukraine on Sunday evening.
The Manchester United midfielder was a late substitution for Die Mannschaft and he ended up grabbing the vital second goal when he latched onto the end of Mesut Ozil's sublime cross.
After a scintillating first-half where Toni Kroos tormented the defence with his wonderful array of passing, Ukraine began to cause Germany some serious problems and Jerome Boateng was forced to scramble Yevhen Konoplyanka's effort off the line.
Low sent on Schweinsteiger in an effort to wrestle back control of proceedings, but he didn't expect his faith to be rewarded with a goal that sealed a 2-0 victory.
"We still need to iron out a few issues. It was good that we were able to make the counter attack pay" he told Germany's "?official website.
"The second goal was a real sucker punch for Ukraine. It wasn't the plan for Basti to push so far forward. He was meant to calm things down.
"Ukraine played a lot of long balls, so it was important to win the second balls. Basti has a lot to offer the team, especially when it's already 1-0 and he can really display his qualites."
Up next for Germany is a match against Poland on Thursday and they will hope to welcome back defensive lynchpin Mats Hummels from injury.
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