Against Luxembourg, Sané was allowed to play right from the start – and repaid the trust. In an overall weak German team, he stood out positively, provided the assist to make it 1-0 and was also involved in the goal that made the final score 2-0. “Sure, I’m happy that I was able to give an assist and to be able to repay the trust in Julian to some extent,” he said about it.
Overall, he is just happy to be part of the German national team again. “It is also an honor to represent the country,” he said and emphasized: “We have big goals.” These are primarily at the World Cup next summer, where Sané would also like to be part of the squad. “Yes, of course. It’s the national team. There’s a World Cup just around the corner. As I said, that’s my big goal and in the end we’ll see what happens,” said Sané.
In order to actually be successful at the World Cup, Germany will have to improve significantly compared to their overall weak performance against Luxembourg. Especially in the first half, the team allowed numerous chances against the football dwarf and could have gone into the break with a deficit. National coach Nagelsmann was correspondingly relieved: “We have three points, that’s the important thing in the end. Football is a results sport,” he said on the RTL microphone.
“Still, it was a lot more difficult than we had hoped. In the first half, we didn’t throw everything into it right from the start. We couldn’t calm down at all,” admitted Nagelsmann and analyzed: “I think we deserved to concede a goal, but we didn’t get one. We can consider ourselves lucky. We’re happy to take the three points with us.”
Double goalscorer Nick Woltemade was also critical: “The manner in the first half was not good. We had too little intensity, too little possession of the ball.” In the end, however, he was pragmatic: “We scored the goals at the right time. I honestly don’t care how – the main thing is that we won the game. I know it wasn’t a treat, but we put our foot down and got three points. There was a lot of pressure on the game, so the win is very good.”
On Monday, Germany will face Slovakia in the final game of the qualification. Then a draw is enough for the team to secure first place in the group and thus a direct World Cup ticket.