‘We need win after win’: Crunch time looms for Germany in World Cup qualifying

BERLIN: A World Cup without Germany used to be unthinkable. Now the four-time champion needs to turn things around to ensure a spot at next year’s tournament.
A shock 2-0 loss to Slovakia in World Cup qualifying means Julian Nagelsmann’s team may need a perfect record in the rest of their qualifiers, starting with wins over Luxembourg on Friday and Northern Ireland on Monday.
“Everyone expects of us that we’ll beat every opponent 5-0, 6-0 but that’s no longer possible,” midfielder Nadiem Amiri said in comments reported by German agency dpa.
“The times have simply changed.

Everyone’s good, everyone can hold their own. For us it’s just important to win.

We need win after win.”
The qualifying format — a four-team group where only the winner qualifies automatically — means Germany must win each of their remaining games unless Slovakia slips up, and get ahead of Slovakia on goal difference too.
Second place would put Germany into a bracket of four teams competing for one spot early next year.
Making history the wrong way
If Germany did fail to make it to the expanded, 48-team World Cup, it would be a historic shock.
Until their loss in Slovakia last month, Germany had never lost a World Cup qualifying game away from home. The only times they missed the men’s World Cup were the inaugural 13-team 1930 event, which they skipped along with most of Europe, and 1950, when they were excluded following World War II.
Of course, even when they have qualified, Germany haven’t always produced the goods.
Group-stage exits in 2018 and 2022 were huge disappointments for a team which had top-class individual players but didn’t seem to gel as a team.