Low was understandably unhappy with the 1-0 defeat at the Aviva Stadium last night, and while his team are practically guaranteed Euro 2016 qualification (with just a home game against Georgia left to play), the coach couldn’t resist indulging in a case of “sauer grapes” when asked what went wrong.
Advertisement
Although his numbers show good form, Ozil will be aiming for a more direct contribution in Sunday’s game with Georgia, where Germany will look for a victory to seal their spot in next summer’s tournament.
The world champions need at least a point against Georgia in Leipzig on Sunday to make sure of their place.
“We were all a bit disappointed afterwards that we didn’t get anything out of that game, but I don’t think anything dramatic happened”, he said.
“We are confident. Of course we did not feel great after the Ireland defeat but we know how we can play”.
“It was an unexpected and unnecessary defeat”.
“I never got the feeling we were arrogant or over-confident”, Lowe said.
“Maybe it was a bit down to a lack of concentration, but the problem is you don’t have much time to train with the players and get into their minds what you want”.
“We avoided 99 of those long balls, but the 100th long ball was just one too many.”
“We’ve got to be better in the final third”. We talked about these things beforehand.
“We need to sharpen our focus”.
“Mario Gotze will definitely not be playing”.
“But overall I can say I leave them that flexibility without wanting to put them in a more rigid formation”. “We just failed to capitalise on our many chances”.
Speaking after the match, Low discussed his tactics – and the roles given to star players Thomas Muller, Mesut Ozil and Marco Reus.
Will Germany finish European Qualifiers with a win?
Advertisement
Georgia, whose only wins in the group came against Gibraltar twice and Scotland, are facing Germany for the fifth time, having lost all their four previous meetings.
