‘It was tight’ says Low after surprise decision to leave City’s Sane at home
Leroy Sane’s shock omission from Germany’s World Cup squad was a “tight” call, according to manager Joachim Low.
Manchester City winger Sane was expected to travel to Russia after an impressive campaign that concluded with him being named the PFA young player of the season.
Bernd Leno, Jonathan Tah and Nils Petersen have also been excluded after making the initial 27-man provisional squad but Marco Reus and Julian Brandt are on the plane.
Sane, 22, played the opening 67 minutes of Saturday’s 2-1 friendly defeat by Austria and Low revealed how close he had come to making his final cut.
“In the end it was tight, both [Sane and Brandt] have great qualities, are fast and dribble,” he said at a press conference yesterday.
“Julian Brandt had some good games at the Confederations Cup and was also very good in training, it was close.
“Leroy has a huge talent and he’ll be there again, and we’ll have to work more with him again from September onwards. He did well against Austria; he went backwards, switched quickly.
“We had to decide; the squad must be balanced, we cannot take a player away from a defensive position and say we take an offensive [player].
“If something happens at the back, we need alternatives, so I had to make that hard decision.”
Goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, who on Saturday returned from nine months out injured, was among those retained, as were Premier League players 0 Leroy Sane: England’s PFA young player of year left out. Antonio Rudiger, Ilkay Gundogan and Mesut Ozil.
Neuer, 32, is expected to remain as captain, and firstchoice goalkeeper, ahead of Barcelona’s Marc-andre ter Stegen. Bayer Leverkusen’s Bernd Leno was the goalkeeper to miss out.
“There are certainly better days in the life of a national coach than when you must send great players home who would have deserved to be at a World Cup,” Low added at the team’s training camp in South Tyrol, Italy.
“You have to look at the big picture so we have a variable and well-balanced team.”
Germany play their opening Group F match against Mexico on 17 June. The defending champions will then face Sweden and South Korea. Nicklas Bendtner has been left off Denmark’s World Cup squad.
Coach Age Hareide says both Bendtner, who has a lingering groin problem, and defender Andreas Bjelland, who is also injured, won’t be ready for the team’s opening match against Peru on 16 June.
Tottenham’s Christian Eriksen, Lasse Schone of Ajax and Copenhagen’s William Kvist were named ahead of Group C games against France, Peru and Australia. On Saturday Denmark play a friendly against Mexico, recent 1-0 winners over Scotland.