Germany recovered from Northern Ireland taking a shock early lead to win 6-1 in Frankfurt and finish top of Euro 2020 qualifying Group C.
Serge Gnabry scored a hat-trick, Leon Goretzka got two and Julian Brandt was on target after Michael Smith had opened the scoring with a super strike.
The match was a dead rubber with the hosts having already qualified for next summer’s finals before kick-off.
Third-placed NI also knew they were heading for the play-offs in March.
With Wales beating Hungary 2-0 to qualify for the finals, it means Michael O’Neill’s men will be away to Bosnia-Herzegovina in their first play-off match.
Northern Ireland, who lost twice to Bosnia in the Nations League, would face the Republic of Ireland or Slovakia in the play-off final.
Manager O’Neill, who took over as Stoke City manager 10 days ago, has agreed to remain in charge of the international side for the play-off games.
Northern Ireland are the only team to have beaten Germany twice during what is now 200 World Cup and Euro qualification matches that they have played.
Smith’s early wonder goal will have had the ever-vocal members of the travelling Green and White Army dreaming of that becoming a hugely unlikely hat-trick, to add to the home and away wins that Billy Bingham’s side secured during the Euro 1984 qualifying campaign.
For Hearts full-back Smith, who was making his seventh international appearance after being left out of the side that drew with the Netherlands at Windsor Park on Saturday, the seventh-minute strike could prove to be the stand-out moment of his career.
