GERMANY STRUGGLE WITH THE TRANSITION
“A new cycle is beginning with the Euro qualifications” Germany boss Joachim Low
Germany are top of the group despite being outplayed by Holland in Hamburg. Joachim Low’s side took an early lead through Serge Gnabry, but defensive tactics allowed the visitors back into a game which they eventually won 4-2.
Low’s reshaping of his team – and in particular the dropping of centre-backs Mats Hummels and Jerome Boateng, along with attacking stalwart Thomas Muller – has inevitably led to teething troubles. A new-look defence featuring Jonathan Tah, Niklas Sule and Nico Schulz was wobbly against the Dutch, while Low continues to favour Manuel
Neuer as his first-choice goalkeeper despite’s Marc-Andre Ter Stegen’s outstanding form for Barcelona.
Three days after Germany’s loss to Holland, Northern Ireland threatened an upset in Belfast until a wonderful volley from defender Marcel Halstenberg and another Gnabry strike, late into injury time, spared Low’s blushes.
“In the national team, you can’t just change everything from one day to the next,” said Low. “I wasn’t sure after the World Cup, because I knew that precisely these three players [Hummels, Boateng and Muller] could still be world-class and they can still be that today.
“Then we had the Nations League, and in a group with France and Holland we needed the experienced players, but the chance to try something new came along in this qualifying group.
“We have started a transition. A new cycle is beginning with the Euro qualifications, but I deliberately wanted to wait out the preparations and see how the players came back from the winter break.
“Before the qualifications, we wanted to go through and decide which players with prospects we’d rely on.
“We knew the others are still good, even very good, but now it’s time for change and already we are seeing the positive impact.”
Northern Ireland, still with most of the stalwarts of their Euro 2016 squad, continue to defy the odds under Michael O’Neill. They won their first four matches before the loss to Germany at Windsor Park but face a difficult run-in with home-and-away games against Holland and then Germany in Frankfurt as their final match.
Despite the 4-2 win in Germany and reaching the Euro Nations League Final in June, Holland find themselves in third place, albeit with a game in hand on both Germany and Northern Ireland.
Ronald Koeman has been praised for the job he has done since succeeding Dick Advocaat in February 2018, with the emergence of so many young stars at Ajax having benefitted the national side. Frenkie De Jong and Matthijs De Ligt, who have since moved to Barcelona and Juventus respectively, are in fine form, while Koeman has coaxed the best from Georginio Wijnaldum and Memphis Depay. He has also benefited from the emergence of Virgil Van Dijk as a leader.
Belarus fired coach Igor Kriushenko after they lost their opening four matches. They won their first game under his replacement, former under-21 boss Mikhail Markhel, against Estonia.
Martin Reim resigned as coach of pointless Estonia in the aftermath of an 8-0 drubbing by Germany in June.