Low’s all a glow after proving critics wrong

GERMANY boss Joachim Low says reaching the Confederations Cup final has justified his bold squad selection.

Low was criticised for the players he took to Russia, with just three of the 2014 World Cup-winning squad involved. Yet their passage to today’s final with Chile has only emphasised the strength in depth of German football.

Earlier this week an Under-21s team that has been depleted by those Confederations Cup call-ups won the Euro 2017 tournament in Poland too, ensuring Low is likely to have plenty of selection headaches when he has to settle on who will return to Russia for next summer’s World Cup.

And the coach has been delighted with how the dry run has gone, and how his inexperienced outfit have risen to the challenge. “I can live with my decision to go with a squad that is not experienced at international level. I feel vindicated – and I believe we have really out-done expectations here.

“The players here have left a very favourable impression. They have benefited from being picked and have developed and that was the most important task for me.”

Germany’s captain Julian Draxler is one of the trio of World Cup winners in this squad and he admitted the performances of the understudies, and their Under-21 counterparts, showed football in his country was in good health.“It speaks great volumes to the strength of the German talent pool,” said the Paris Saint-Germain forward.

The German success has come as no surprise to Chile’s Bayern Munich midfielder Arturo Vidal.

“Everyone was talking about this being their second side, but Germany have players here who are in outstanding physical condition, better than the ones who aren’t here,” he said.

“But we have beaten Argentina, we’ve beaten Portugal, the European champions, and if we win tomorrow we might be the best team in the world.”