Werner shines but Saudis make Germans sweat
SO HERE’S the puzzle: do we regard the world champions’ powers to be on the wane or do they have something special up their sleeves? Germany are always one of the favourites ahead of a major tournament and, having won the Confederations Cup 12 months ago, many regard them as the team to beat in Russia. Why wouldn’t they? A nation that can afford to leave Leroy Sane at home and have Mesut Ozil, Julian Brandt and Leon Goretzka in reserve must surely go deep into the World Cup. Germany should not have much difficulty negotiating a group that contains Sweden, Mexico and South Korea. But Joachim Low, who masterminded the success in Brazil four years ago, will have anxieties as Germany look to defend their crown following a patchy performance in their final warm-up game against Saudi Arabia. They had failed to win in their five previous friendlies, most recently losing 2-1 to Austria last Saturday, and were made to sweat by Saudi Arabia here. RB Leipzig striker Timo Werner put the Germans on their way in the eighth minute. There were boos for Manchester City’s Ilkay Gundogan after he was pictured recently with Turkey’s President Recep Erdogan. But what will have troubled Low more was the number of times Saudi Arabia, who are also going to Russia, were able to carve out chances. Goalkeeper Manuel Neuer stood firm in the first half and Omar Hawsawi’s own goal before half-time settled things. But the hosts were left hanging on after Taisir Al-Jassim scored a rebound when sub keeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen had kept out Mohammad Al-Sahlawi’s penalty. Despite the narrow win, Neuer said: ‘We are not putting too much emphasis on this game, we are looking at the bigger picture with bigger objectives.’