There will be a draw on Saturday – and Julian Nagelsmann will take it as it comes. The national team faces a difficult group at the home European Championships. A lot of work awaits on the way to the opening game.
National coach Julian Nagelsmann travels to the eagerly awaited draw for the European Championship group phase with a dose of fatalism.
“The charm of a draw is that it is drawn by lot. So you don’t have your luck in your own hands, there are no easy opponents anyway,” Nagelsmann told the German Press Agency before the gala in Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie on Saturday (6 p.m./ ZDF, RTL and MagentaTV). “Accordingly, I’ll let it come to me and look forward to an exciting evening.”
As hosts, the German national soccer team is placed in position A1 and is therefore initially avoiding the best nations in the qualification, i.e. France, England, Belgium, Spain and Portugal. However, an enormously challenging group is still possible with, for example, Denmark, the Netherlands and defending champions Italy.
“In preparation, I am of course no longer concerned with the teams from draw pot one, who are not possible opponents for us in the group phase,” said the national coach, who won 2-3 against Turkey and 2-0 in Vienna had recently suffered severe setbacks against Austria. “Ideally, we’ll have to deal with these later, in the knockout phase, but that’s still a long way off.”
Nagelsmann: Still a lot of work before the DFB selection
Nagelsmann once again admitted that there is still a lot of work to do before the DFB selection. “We will use the following months to prepare meticulously for our group opponents,” said the 36-year-old. “For us it’s also about finding the right opponents for our preparation for the European Championship and, above all, stabilizing our own game.”
On the way to the German opening game on June 14th in Munich, two test games are planned in March – reportedly against the Netherlands and in France. However, if the Netherlands are drawn as group opponents for Nagelsmann’s selection, another opponent could also be sought. Two more test matches are scheduled to take place in direct preparation after the end of the Bundesliga season.
Source: Stern
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