Germany started their World Cup qualification campaign perfectly with a 3-0 victory against Norway in Oslo. Head coach Joachim Löw was satisfied with the performance but also pointed out certain areas that need improvement. We gathered the reaction of the players and the coach after the match:
Joachim Löw: We played well and dominated the match. Norway weren’t the most difficult opponents to play against today, however we moved the ball around well and kept our shape. It was good to take the lead so early on with such a typical Thomas Müller goal. That will do him good for the rest of the season. We let our opponents have one or two chances which frustrated me, however, that can’t always be prevented. In fact, Norway didn’t really have any proper chances. In the first 20-30 minutes the full-backs got forward and played a lot of balls up the pitch. Of course there are areas we can improve on, such as making the most of our chances and getting forward quicker when we win back possession. That was difficult to do today because Norway sat so deep and we were often trying to find a way through a wall of players. We have to improve our runs and incisiveness in the last 30 minutes of the match.
Thomas Müller: We played well in our first match however we could have scored more goals. We were a little bit lucky with the first goal. However, it’s still nice to get on the scoresheet.
Joshua Kimmich: I don’t score many goals. Of course I’m happy that I managed to score. Us full-backs always get forward. Today I was often unmarked and I could get forward easily.
Mario Götze: We showed that we wanted to win the three points right from the start. We knew that it wouldn’t be easy until we scored the first goal. Then we continued to create goal-scoring chances.
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Germany started their World Cup qualification campaign perfectly with a 3-0 victory against Norway in Oslo. Head coach Joachim Löw was satisfied with the performance but also pointed out certain areas that need improvement. We gathered the reaction of the players and the coach after the match:
Joachim Löw: We played well and dominated the match. Norway weren’t the most difficult opponents to play against today, however we moved the ball around well and kept our shape. It was good to take the lead so early on with such a typical Thomas Müller goal. That will do him good for the rest of the season. We let our opponents have one or two chances which frustrated me, however, that can’t always be prevented. In fact, Norway didn’t really have any proper chances. In the first 20-30 minutes the full-backs got forward and played a lot of balls up the pitch. Of course there are areas we can improve on, such as making the most of our chances and getting forward quicker when we win back possession. That was difficult to do today because Norway sat so deep and we were often trying to find a way through a wall of players. We have to improve our runs and incisiveness in the last 30 minutes of the match.
Thomas Müller: We played well in our first match however we could have scored more goals. We were a little bit lucky with the first goal. However, it’s still nice to get on the scoresheet.
Joshua Kimmich: I don’t score many goals. Of course I’m happy that I managed to score. Us full-backs always get forward. Today I was often unmarked and I could get forward easily.
Mario Götze: We showed that we wanted to win the three points right from the start. We knew that it wouldn’t be easy until we scored the first goal. Then we continued to create goal-scoring chances.