Low looks for Germany to set mark of ten out of ten

While Germany secured qualification for the World Cup on Thursday evening, Joachim Low wasn’t leading his team out for any celebratory beers in Belfast after the game.

It was still a case of work to do for the World Champions who are looking for another victory on Sunday night, at home to Azerbaijan, so that they go through the Russia 2018 qualification campaign with a 100% win record of ten out of ten.

“Are we going to celebrate?” was the question posed by Low himself speaking in the post-match press conference after he saw his team beat Northern Ireland 3-1.

“Are we going to have a few beers? Are we going to give the players time to spend the night in Belfast pubs? No. That would be unprofessional and not our style.”

Low's team is unbeaten in all 29 World Cup qualifiers he has been in charge (with 26 wins), scoring a century of goals after Thursday's trip to Belfast.

All told Germany have played 47 World Cup away qualifiers down the years and have won all 47. They are now seeking to have their best ever qualification campaign for a World Cup.

“On Sunday we want to get ten wins from ten games. That plus the goal average will hopefully result in Germany’s most successful qualifying campaign.”

It was a relaxed looking Low speaking in Windsor Park after the game who looked back on the flawless qualification process with some satisfaction.

“Taking stock of the campaign so far, my verdict is very positive. We looked at this group (at the start) and said to ourselves we wanted to dominate this group, make no compromises and possibly not drop any points. We have managed to do that.”

Reflecting on the game in Belfast, Low noted that in “the first half here we played just as I had imagined. We pretty much dominated the game and controlled the game, even controlled Northern Ireland offensively. We probably only allowed them three opportunities to score in the first half.”

His side raced into the lead within two minutes thanks to Sebastian Rudy’s superb strike. “Rudy’s goal was simply spectacular; they don’t come much better than that. The keeper had no chance.”

The goalscorer, speaking to DFB.de after the game, was obviously thrilled with the win but had one eye on the prize of retaining his country’s World Cup crown.

“I’m absolutely delighted for Die Mannschaft,” said Bayern Munich midfielder Rudy. “It was important for us to score an early goal so that we could calm our nerves slightly. We want to defend our title, of course. We’re not going to Russia just to join in – we want to achieve something there.”

His manager meanwhile was very complimentary of Michael O’Neill’s men. “Northern Ireland are heavyweights in terms of defending. It was difficult to break their defence. With all due respects to Northern Ireland, they are a nation of just under two million inhabitants and they were competitive in the group.

“There is hardly any gap between us and them but with the World Cup coming up, we need to improve in many areas. We did what we had to do, but with a view to the World Cup, there is a lot of work to do.”

With that in mind, Germany announced after the game that they will play England at Wembley Stadium on 10 November after both sides secured qualification for the 2018 World Cup ahead of their respective final qualifying groups.

Intense game. 9 matches, 9 wins. We will be part of the World Cup in Russia next year. Now let’s finish the group with another win! pic.twitter.com/Ozv8adK8oB

— Marc ter Stegen (@mterstegen1) October 5, 2017