Euro 2016 qualifying: Germany avenge Poland loss but still eye improvements

World champions defeat neighbours 3-1 to go top of Group D.

BERLIN: Germany head coach Joachim Loew says the world champions can improve further in Monday’s Euro 2016 qualifier away to Scotland after Mario Gotze’s goals sealed a 3-1 win over Poland to top their group.

Thomas Muller gave the hosts an early lead in Frankfurt on Friday and Gotze scored twice as Germany avenged last year’s 2-0 away defeat in Warsaw to replace Poland at the top of Group D.

All four goals came from Bayern Munich players as Poland captain Robert Lewandowski pulled one back with a diving header as it finished 2-1 at the break.

Muller and Gotze then combined for Germany’s third on 82 minutes to kill off hopes of a late Poland equaliser.

“We had one goal, to win the game, that was the most important thing,” said Loew after arguably his side’s best display since winning the 2014 World Cup. “All in all, we can be very happy. It will be a different type of game against Scotland, much tighter and we have areas to improve.”

It was Poland’s first defeat in seven Euro 2016 qualifiers in an impressive display from the Germans after several below-par performances last season.

Scotland’s 1-0 defeat away to Georgia saw them drop to fourth in the table with Germany top on 16 points, Poland now second on 14 while Ireland go third with 12, one ahead of the Scots.

Promised Land awaits Wales in Israel clash

Wales can end 57 years of obscurity and heartbreak on Sunday when they play Israel in Cardiff needing a win to qualify for next year’s European Championship in France.

It was 1958 when Wales last reached a major tournament, ironically beating Israel in a play-off to qualify for that year’s World Cup in Sweden, where a side bereft of injured Juventus striker John Charles fell to Pele’s Brazil in the quarter-finals.

Wales have endured one-sided defeats, agonising near-misses and personal tragedy in the intervening years, but Gareth Bale’s thunderous headed winner against Cyprus on Thursday has set the scene for a night of catharsis at the Cardiff City Stadium.

“For the Welsh supporters waiting for us to get back home, get excited,” said manager Chris Coleman. “My message for them is to get carried away. Enjoy this. They’ve waited a long time. But we can’t get carried away. I can’t, the players can’t, my staff can’t, and we won’t.”

A small, craggy nation of some three million people that juts into the Irish Sea, Wales is renowned more for rugby union than football and fans of the round-ball game have seen enough disappointment to know not to count any chickens before kick-off on Sunday.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 6^th, 2015.

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