Germany’s final World Cup qualifying game of this international break sees them host North Macedonia in Duisburg on Wednesday evening.
Coach Joachim Low’s first priority coming into this break would’ve been to get Die Mannschaft back to winning ways, especially after 2020 ended with a shocking 6-0 drubbing at the hands of Spain in Seville. On that count, Low’s objectives have been achieved with the wins over both Iceland and Romania, but even the gaffer will be the first to admit that the national side weren’t at their best in both games.
Against Romania, Germany just about managed a 1-0 win. Goal scorer Serge Gnabry did reasonably well, but the rest struggled, as shown by these player ratings from the German press.
Interestingly, Low opted for the same XI against both Iceland and Romania. This saw a 4-3-3 formation being employed, with Emre Can at left back and Marc Ginter and Antonio Rudiger in the heart of defence with Lukas Klostermann at right back. The Bayern duo of Leon Goretzka and Joshua Kimmich were joined by in-form Man City star Ilkay Gundogan in midfield. Somewhat surprisingly, there was no place for Timo Werner upfront, with Low preferring Serge Gnabry to be supported by Werner’s Chelsea team mate Kai Havertz and Bayern’s Leroy Sane on the wings in their 4-3-3 formation.
Playing the same 11 thrice in seven days looks out of question, and Low is expected to rotate some players against North Macedonia. One of them could see Barcelona stopper Marc-Andre Ter Stegen get a chance under the sticks ahead of Manuel Neuer. Even despite the expected first XI changes, the likes of Unibet have the Germans as firm favourites to see off the visitors and make it three wins out of three in Group J.
North Macedonia have been quite impressive so far in qualifying. They were a tad unlucky to lose 3-2 to Romania in their opener, having fought back from 2-0 down to level the scores at 2-2 before Ianis Hagi’s late winner gave the hosts all three points. Macedonia had the better of possession and strung together more passes than the Romanians.
They then followed it up with a 5-0 win over Liechtenstein that has taken them to third spot in the group on goal difference. While Germany are group favourites, the runners up spot appears to be very much up for grabs, with a potential three-way battle between North Macedonia, Armenia and Romania looming. Iceland would originally have been fancied to finish second, but seem to have lost their way a bit following back to back defeats in which they failed to trouble the scorers on both occasions.
The lack of home fans could play into North Macedonia’s favour. This is also Germany’s last competitive game before the European Championships in June- a chance for Low to fine-tune and assess things before deciding on whether or not to recall the likes of Thomas Muller for the Euros.