Matthias Ginter scored the 20th-minute opener after a fine cross from Antonio Ruediger.

“I try every day to work on my finishing,” Ginter told TV station ARD after his second international goal. “We had chances for 3-0 but then conceded for 2-1. We had a lot of simple mistakes in the first half, we lost a lot of easy balls.”

The Germans could have sealed the win before half-time but goalkeeper Georgiy Bushchan put on a show, using his fingertip to save a shot from Joshua Kimmich and then producing another fine save after Serge Gnabry’s close-range header.

But he went from hero to zero for the second goal, Leon Goretzka taking advantage of a mistake by the keeper to head the ball into the net early in the second half.

Ukraine cut the deficit with a penalty by Ruslan Malinovskyi after Roman Yaremchuk was fouled by Niklas Suele.

Once again Germany found themselves at risk of losing a lead for the fourth time since the return of international games after the coronavirus-related break. They only drew against Spain and Switzerland in September in the Nations League and Turkey in a friendly on Wednesday.

“The penalty was unnecessary, Niklas Suele only had to keep up with the opponent,” coach Joachim Loew told ARD.

Loew made nine changes compared to the draw against Turkey as the rested Bayern Munich and RB Leipzig players and Toni Kroos returned to the team.

“First of all, I’m happy that we won,” he said. “We could have led 3-0 or 4-0 even before we conceded.”

Bayern’s Gnabry suggested the line-up could have been a bit different in possible veiled criticism of Loew. Gnabry was the only man up front as Timo Werner started on the bench through illness.

“Another player up front might have helped,” he said. “But if we play as well as we did after the break, it can work like this as well.”

Germany were searching for a Nations League win since the competition was created in the 2018-19 season, when they finished bottom of their group in the first edition. They now put an end to a sequence of four draws and two defeats in the competition.

Ukraine were badly hamstrung as only Dynamo Kiev’s Bushchan was available for the goalkeeper position since regular Andriy Pyatov and keepers Yuriy Pankiv and Andriy Lunin tested positive for coronavirus.

Germany are second in the top-tier Group A4 with five points. Next for them is the Nations League match against Switzerland on Tuesday, while Ukraine, third place in the same group, host leaders Spain on the same day.