Nagelsmann ahead of European Championship draw: There are no easy opponents
German coach Julian Nagelsmann travels to the eagerly awaited draw for the European Championship group stage with a dose of fatalism.
"The charm of a draw is that you draw lots. So you don't have your luck in your own hands, and there are no easy opponents anyway," Nagelsmann told the German Press Agency ahead of the gala in Hamburg's Elbphilharmonie on Saturday (18:00/ZDF, RTL and MagentaTV). "Accordingly, I'm taking it easy and looking forward to an exciting evening."
The German national soccer team is seeded A1 as the hosts and will therefore initially avoid the best nations in qualifying, i.e. France, England, Belgium, Spain and Portugal. However, an enormously challenging group with Denmark, the Netherlands and defending champions Italy, for example, is still possible.
"In preparation, of course, I'm no longer looking at the teams from pot one, which are not possible opponents for us in the group stage," said the national coach, who recently suffered bitter setbacks with the 3-2 defeat to Turkey and the 2-0 loss to Austria in Vienna. "Ideally, we'll have to deal with them later, in the knockout phase, but there's still a long way to go."
Nagelsmann: Still a lot of work ahead for the DFB squad
Nagelsmann once again admitted that there is still a lot of work ahead for the DFB squad. "We will use the coming months to prepare meticulously for our group opponents," said the 36-year-old. "It's also about finding the right opponents for our European Championship preparations and, above all, stabilizing our own game."
On the way to Germany's opening game on June 14 in Munich, two test matches are initially planned for March - reportedly against the Netherlands and in France. However, if the Netherlands are drawn as group opponents for Nagelsmann's team, another opponent could also be sought. Two more test matches are scheduled in the immediate preparations after the end of the Bundesliga season.
Source: www.dpa.com
