The world champions now have their first competitive match of the international break after their 1-0 victory over England. Löw’s side take on Azerbaijan in Baku on Sunday at 18:00 CEST in a World Cup qualifier. The coach himself and captain for tomorrow, Sami Khedira, spoke to DFB.de about Germany’s fifth match against the third-placed side in Group C.
Joachim Löw on…
... HIS CAPTAIN IN BAKU: Sami Khedira will be our captain. He is a leader, has an exemplary attitude, a good communicator, a winning mentality and professionalism. That is what Sami Khedira is about.
… PERSONNEL: Every player is fit apart from Mesut Özil. He remains a doubt, we’ll have to wait and see until after the final training session. Mesut has some problems with his back and has had treatment. He now needs to see how he does in training and then we will decide.
… THE STARTING XI: Mario Gomez will start. He always causes problems for defenders. I think we’re going to get a lot of chances. Benedikt Höwedes will start at centre-back alongside Mats Hummels. That’s what I had planned so his rest against England was sensible. We’ll decide on who is in goal after training.
… ANDRÉ SCHÜRRLE: His situation at Dortmund is not exactly ideal. On the other hand I know what his strengths are. He is dynamic and is dangerous in front of goal. He was really, really good in training and was clinical. He impressed with his fitness.
… THE MATCH AGAINST AZERBAIJAN: It is our first qualifier for a long time. Our objective is clear. We want to secure qualification for Russia 2018 without dropping any points. So for us the aim is clearly to get three points. We know that it will not be easy because the conditions are not ideal, having a long journey there, time to adjust etc. but I am convinced that we can win this game if we have the right levels of concentration.
… THE OPPOSITION: The same goes for the team as the country as a whole. You can see their development from 2009 to 2011. They have had a sporting boom here. The team has developed their football and tactics. They beat Norway and drew 0-0 with the Czech Republic. They are doing well and definitely have a chance of finishing in second place. They defend very well, are very fit and robust. They will obviously be highly-motivated playing against a team like us.
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The world champions now have their first competitive match of the international break after their 1-0 victory over England. Löw’s side take on Azerbaijan in Baku on Sunday at 18:00 CEST in a World Cup qualifier. The coach himself and captain for tomorrow, Sami Khedira, spoke to DFB.de about Germany’s fifth match against the third-placed side in Group C.
Joachim Löw on…
... HIS CAPTAIN IN BAKU: Sami Khedira will be our captain. He is a leader, has an exemplary attitude, a good communicator, a winning mentality and professionalism. That is what Sami Khedira is about.
… PERSONNEL: Every player is fit apart from Mesut Özil. He remains a doubt, we’ll have to wait and see until after the final training session. Mesut has some problems with his back and has had treatment. He now needs to see how he does in training and then we will decide.
… THE STARTING XI: Mario Gomez will start. He always causes problems for defenders. I think we’re going to get a lot of chances. Benedikt Höwedes will start at centre-back alongside Mats Hummels. That’s what I had planned so his rest against England was sensible. We’ll decide on who is in goal after training.
… ANDRÉ SCHÜRRLE: His situation at Dortmund is not exactly ideal. On the other hand I know what his strengths are. He is dynamic and is dangerous in front of goal. He was really, really good in training and was clinical. He impressed with his fitness.
… THE MATCH AGAINST AZERBAIJAN: It is our first qualifier for a long time. Our objective is clear. We want to secure qualification for Russia 2018 without dropping any points. So for us the aim is clearly to get three points. We know that it will not be easy because the conditions are not ideal, having a long journey there, time to adjust etc. but I am convinced that we can win this game if we have the right levels of concentration.
… THE OPPOSITION: The same goes for the team as the country as a whole. You can see their development from 2009 to 2011. They have had a sporting boom here. The team has developed their football and tactics. They beat Norway and drew 0-0 with the Czech Republic. They are doing well and definitely have a chance of finishing in second place. They defend very well, are very fit and robust. They will obviously be highly-motivated playing against a team like us.
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Sami Khedira on…
… THE TEAM’S POSITIVE ATTITUDE: We won the World Cup in 2014 and then three important players retired. I believe the coaching team also saw at the time that there was a slight gap there. You could see that it wasn’t going that well and that 95% effort wasn’t enough. Now you can sense the hunger is there again after we went out of the Euros in the semi-finals. If you give everything from the start and take the opposition seriously, then it is a lot more fun than when you have to really grind out a victory. The coach has told us that, there is no other way to do it. We want to do that right until the end.
… HIS FITNESS: It is difficult for me to say that this is the best period in my career in terms of my condition. There were also other times where things were going really well. When you get older - and I will be 30 in a few weeks - you really take care of your body. I feel fitter than I ever have and coupled with my experience, I have found the perfect way to stay in shape. I have a place in this team and I feel very happy. Both myself and the coaching staff communicate with each other very well.
… THE MATCH AGAINST AZERBAIJAN: We are preparing ourselves for a tough game, a match in which we need to give 100% right from the start. It will come down to having high levels of concentration from the outset. We will definitely be taking them seriously as we do with every team. We hope that we can produce a good showing and we are here to be successful.
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