Football
ESPN staff 8y

Germany's Joachim Low targets strong start to World Cup qualifying

Germany manager Joachim Low hopes his team can make a better fist of qualification for the 2018 World Cup than they did for Euro 2016.

Although Germany topped Group D en route to the European Championship they made it hard for themselves, losing to Poland and only taking one point off Republic of Ireland over two games.

They open this campaign away at Norway and Low hopes for a positive start.

"We came here to Norway to win," he told a prematch news conference on Saturday. "In the Euros qualifying, it was difficult, we lost the first [away] game.

"This time I do not want to experience such a mixed qualifying. For us it is very important that tomorrow we highly concentrated go into the game and take the three points."

Norway failed to qualify for the European Championship, finishing third in Group H behind Italy and Croatia before losing a playoff to Hungary, but Low does not underestimate their ability.

"We usually have more possession than Norway," he said. "I do not think that they will attack us early, but they also play on the break. They can counter well and are also dangerous from set pieces."

Having lost Philipp Lahm and Per Mertesacker after the 2014 World Cup victory, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Lukas Podolski have now retired too.

But Toni Kroos is confident Germany have enough experience in Mesut Ozil, Thomas Muller, Sami Khedira, new captain Manuel Neuer and himself to handle the transitional period.

"I do not think it will take long," he told the German Football Association's website. "The situation is also not new to us. After each tournament, it is so that two or three players are no longer there. And we were always able to absorb this. This time Basti and Lukas have stopped; of course, they leave a gap.

"But it is not that we have eliminated so many game minutes - both were important for the team, but Lukas has recently played less and less, and Bastian had much to contend with injuries.

"This means there is not much of an extreme change for us as a team."

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