The World Champions have arrived in Leipzig. One day prior to their final European Championship qualifying game against Georgia (on Sunday, 20:45 CEST), Germany coach Joachim Löw and the World's Best Goalkeeper Manuel Neuer answered the media’s questions, and expressed their optimism for the upcoming encounter. DFB.de attended the final press conference and summarised the most important statements.
Joachim Löw on...
...the defeat in Dublin: We were disappointed about not getting a result in Dublin. But I don’t think that anything dramatic has happened. We were disappointed, but at the same time we’re confident that we will bounce back.
...a potential arrogance within the team: Not one of our players is showing signs of arrogance. I never had that feeling about my team. We became erratic during the game with Ireland, but not arrogant. Perhaps the lack of concentration also played a part. The fact is, we don't always have a lot of time to practice so we have to strengthen our players mentally through conversations. The team has to learn to take better advantage of their chances and score goals early. Otherwise we give the opposition confidence. Our game in the final third has to improve.
...what areas need to be worked on: I have no doubts on our idea of how to play the game. We will sit down and discuss what areas of our game didn’t work so well and try to improve them. Our defence has looked solid lately, but we made one mistake in our last game. If you look at the statistics, you will see that we require too many chances to score. Our efficiency has not been on point in the last year and we need to work on that. We have to take every chance, as if it was the only chance we had in the game. Our control of the game is excellent, but we aren’t as clinical as we once were.
...Mario Götze: We were shocked to hear how severe the injury really was. He had just rediscovered a good form, not just with us, but also at his club FC Bayern. Therefore we are all very sad for him.
...Bastian Schweinsteiger: Bastian has returned to do some light running exercises. A decision on whether he can play or not will be made at short notice.
...Leipzig as the venue for the match: Leipzig is a great venue for our team, as we've celebrated a lot of success here already. We look forward to the game and to the fans, who will give us great support once again.
...strikers such as Klose and Gomez: We've had this discussion for a few years now. Do their styles of play fit into our team? Mario Gomez definitely has a lot of quality and he remains a prospect for this team. Our team is able to create goals from open play and it's important for me that a player fits into our philosophy.
Germany miss out on the chance to secure qualification for the European Championship in France next year with one game to spare. In the penultimate matchday of Group D, Die Mannschaft were beaten 1-0 away to The Republic of Ireland. The only goal of the evening was scored by Shane Long in the 70th minute, and it will make for a tense encounter against Georgia on Sunday (20:45 CEST) in Leipzig, where the DFB-Team will need to collect that final point. Joachin Löw’s side do still remain at the top of the group with 19 points ahead of Poland and Ireland both on 18, but the job is not done yet.
The World Cup winners started positively and pushed forwards from the start in front of 51,000 spectators in the Aviva Stadium. Only 25 seconds into the game, Jonas Hector picked out Reus with a perfect cross to create the first chance of the game. The BVB star then found Müller who steered an early shot towards Shay Given’s goal. Germany continued to press and earned themselves four corners inside the opening ten minutes. The best chance in this period fell to Jerome Boateng who was left unmarked but headed over.
The better chances to take the lead continued to fall to the visitors: In the eleventh minute Mario Götze pulled the ball back for Ilkay Gündogan after an eye-catching run into the penalty area, but Gündogan sent his first-time effort just over the bar. After 19 minutes, Özil put the ball in the back of Ireland’s net from five metres after being played in by Müller, but he was correctly adjudged to be offside and the goal was disallowed.
Germany with most of the action
Germany tried everything, enjoyed 70 percent possession, but found it increasingly difficult to open up the compact Irish defence. The home side fought hard to keep winning the ball back and break forward over the half-way line, but struggled to get any further than the edge of the penalty area. Captain Manuel Neuer, leading Die Mannschaft in place of the injured Bastian Schweinsteiger was left untested in the first half.
Manager Joachim Löw was pleased with his team’s defending in the first half. His only real worry from the first 45 minutes was Mario Götze, who came off with an injury to his inner ten minutes before the half-time whistle. André Schürrle replaced the Bayern München man. Ireland’s manager Martin O’Neill was also forced into making a change: Goalkeeper Shay Given pulled a muscle taking a goal kick and was stretchered off the pitch. Darren Randolph took his place between the sticks.
'Super sub' Long puts Ireland in front
After the break, Die Mannschaft continued to dominate, and came very close after Neuer threw the ball forward to instigate a counter attack which Reus crossed in for Schürrle who saw his volleyed effort clear the crossbar. As for Ireland; a terrific fighting spirit saw them continue to threaten Germany. Daryl Murphy put his shot from the edge of the area just wide of Neuer’s goal after 64 minutes. His replacement: Shane Long, on the other hand, ran onto a long goal kick from Randolph, took it down well and drilled his shot past Neuer and into the back of the net to put the 'Boys in Green' ahead after 70 minutes.
Die Mannschaft immediately went on the hunt for the equaliser: Mats Hummels’s header went just wide of the post two minutes after going behind. Shortly after, it was Müller’s turn to uncharacteristically pass up a glorious opportunity. Boateng also came close as he saw his long-range effort parried out for a corner after 81 minutes.
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