Injury woes apart, Germany’s Loew cautious ahead of Oslo opener
BERLIN: World champions Germany take on Norway tomorrow hoping for a better away start to their 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign than they experienced two years ago in European Championship qualifiers.
Although manager Joachim Loew’s side began with a 2-1 home win over Scotland, their trip to Poland resulted in a 2-0 defeat and the stuttering start continued with a 1-1 draw at home to Ireland.
Loew is still missing a num- ber of regulars through injury and his squad is looking thinner after a 2-0 friendly win over Finland in Moenchengladbach on Wednesday as he heads to Oslo for the Group C encounter.
“We will be taking Norway very seriously because, of course, it is our goal to start with a win in the World Cup qualifiers,” the coach said.
Among players still out are central defender Jerome Boateng, midfielders Ilkay Gündogan and Marco Reus, and strikers Mario Gomez and Leroy Sane.
Germany, who went out to hosts France in the semi-finals of Euro 2016, are favourites in a group also including the Czech Republic, Northern Ireland, Azerbaijan and San Marino.
The world champions will be officially captained for the first time by Bayern Munich goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, who has succeeded Bastian Schweinsteiger, now retired from international football.
Neuer said the aim should be to win all four World Cup qualifiers this year, but Norway would not be easy opponents as they were somewhat of an unknown quantity.
“We will prepare well. The Norwegian players are all disciplined, very athletic and fit,” he said.
“We are highly motivated and want to be successful in all four games by December.”
Following Norway, Germany have games in the group this year against the Czechs, Northern Ireland and San Marino.
From the squad for the Finland game, striker Kevin Volland is out with a fractured hand, midfielder Emre Can has an ankle injury and Julian Draxler is suffering from flu.
Midfielder André Schürrle dropped out before the Finland game with a back problem.
Loew wanted to send Max Meyer, Niklas Suele and Julian Brandt – three youngsters from Germany’s Rio Olympics team – home for some rest, but now only Suele has returned as planned to Hoffenheim.
Germany have had clearly the better of Norway in their 20 previous meetings, winning 13, drawing five and losing just twice.
They have yet to be beaten in Norway, but did lose the last time the teams met, 1-0 at home in Dusseldorf in 2009.
Norway, under coach PerMathias Hogmo, are seeking to get back into the finals of an international competition for the first time since the 2000 European Championships.
The last of their three appearances at a World Cup finals was 1998 in France. – DPA
Georgia v Austria, San Marino v Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan v Poland, Denmark v Armenia, Lithuania v Slovenia, Slovakia v England (all 6pm SA time); Malta v Scotland, Romania v Montenegro, Norway v Germany, Czech Republic v Northern Ireland (all 8.45pm).