The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Germany ‘formidable but not invincible’
Germany may never have lost an away World Cup qualifier in their history, but Michael O’Neill has told his Northern Ireland players the world champions are “formidable but not invincible”.
‘Die Mannschaft’ boast a phenomenal record in the preliminaries for the global tournament having lost only two of the 92 games – against Portugal in 1985 and against England in 2001, both in Germany – and they have arrived in Belfast on the back of 12 successive World Cup qualification wins away from home.
O’Neill has previously joked he would have to invent flaws in the Germans, yet having won a national record five successive games and not lost a competitive home contest in four years, his side are imbued with belief.
“Analysis is important because it’s how it’s interpreted – we’ve presented the Germans as a formidable opponent but not an invincible opponent,” he said.
“An opponent that on any given night, there’s an opportunity for us to try and find a way to win the game and certainly the players believe that.
“I think Germany are the strongest team in Europe, arguably the world. The players they have coming into their squad seem to adapt to international football very quickly. Germany have a very attacking approach – you have to then have weaknesses defensively, potentially. We’ve looked at how they’ve lost goals, maybe from overplaying at the back, lapses in concentration, little things that we have to look to exploit as well.
“We’re under no illusion, we’re not going to come in and suddenly have 60% of the ball, there’s no point preparing as if we are.
“We know the areas where we believe we can hurt Germany. It will need a massive performance and some fine individual moments to win the game.”
Germany begin the contest five points clear of Northern Ireland, who have guaranteed second spot in Group C and would seal one of the eight play-off berths were they to win.