Under normal circumstances, it would bode well for any national team to look down a league table and see Germany beneath them.
These are not normal times, however. The Republic of Ireland kick off against the world champions in Gelsenkirchen on Tuesday with an advantage, albeit courtesy of playing an embarrassingly poor Gibraltar team on Saturday.
The real drama occurred in Warsaw. The presumption was that Ireland, Scotland and Poland were in a three-way battle for second place behind Germany. Then Poland ended a 19-game wait for a first victory against their neighbours to transform the group. Now the Irish’s task to qualify becomes more difficult. Now Germany’s margin for error is reduced.
“The fact we now need to take maximum points is clear,” Germany manager Joachim Loew said at the weekend. That bodes badly for Ireland; so, too, does the fact that they lost 6-1 to Germany two years ago, a nadir in Giovanni Trapattoni’s managerial career and a night that illustrated the venerable Italian had become yesterday’s man. His replacement, Martin O’Neill, has brought a fresher approach.
Like Trapattoni in 2012, Germany now face questions if their best days are behind them. July’s World Cup win seemed to set them up to dominate for years, but they have encountered difficulties as defending champions. They have lost two of their subsequent three games, with an Angel di Maria-inspired Argentina scoring four times in a rather less significant rematch of the World Cup final, and unconvincingly defeated Scotland.
Talk of a World Cup hangover is understandable. Perhaps more pertinent, however, is the loss of eight players with a aggregate of more than 600 caps. Three centurions – Miroslav Klose, Per Mertesacker and captain Philipp Lahm – retired in July. A fourth, new skipper Bastian Schweinsteiger is injured. So, too, are Sami Khedira, Mesut Ozil, Marco Reus and Benedikt Howedes.
Loew could select a stronger starting 11 from those unavailable than those at his disposal.
Germany have remarkable strength in depth and a conveyor belt of talent that makes them the envy of Europe, but even they limits to their resources. Their difficulty in Warsaw came in either penalty box. Despite having 62 per cent of possession and 28 attempts, they failed to score while an inexperienced defence was caught on the counter-attack.
Loew was philosophical. “In the next two years, our players will pick up experience from which they will learn,” he said. “Life is not harder, despite the defeat. In fact it’s much, much nicer since the World Cup. We have to learn our lessons and take something from it, but I am sure we will turn things around. I don’t see any major problems with qualifying.”
One of the great constants is that Germany always qualify. Mario Gotze was similarly buoyant. “On Tuesday we will pick up the three points,” he said in Warsaw.
The scorer of the World Cup final winner must shoulder some of the responsibility for changing their fortunes. In the absence of conventional strikers, he and Thomas Muller are the likeliest scorers. The debutant Karim Bellarabi was wasteful against Poland and perhaps Loew should have deviated from his youth policy to give the more clinical veteran Lukas Podolski a start.
With the Arsenal man a likely substitute, the chance is that Loew’s team will have fewer international goals between them than one Irishman has on his own. Robbie Keane’s three goals in the turkey shoot against Gibraltar took his tally to 65. Only four Europeans have scored more and the next two in his path are Germans: the legendary Gerd Muller, whose 68 goals came in just 62 games, and Klose, who ended with 71.
“I know Klose: that’s as far as I know,” said the Ireland captain. “I never think about what’s happened before and I never think about what’s going to happen in the future, because I can’t predict what’s going to happen.”
Now even Germany can testify to the unpredictability of football.
sports@thenational.ae
Follow us on Twitter @SprtNationalUAE
Nayanthara: Beyond The Fairy Tale
Starring: Nayanthara, Vignesh Shivan, Radhika Sarathkumar, Nagarjuna Akkineni
Director: Amith Krishnan
Rating: 3.5/5
MEFCC information
Tickets range from Dh110 for an advance single-day pass to Dh300 for a weekend pass at the door. VIP tickets have sold out. Visit www.mefcc.com to purchase tickets in advance.
The specs
Engine: 2-litre or 3-litre 4Motion all-wheel-drive Power: 250Nm (2-litre); 340 (3-litre) Torque: 450Nm Transmission: 8-speed automatic Starting price: From Dh212,000 On sale: Now
Last-16 Europa League fixtures
Wednesday (Kick-offs UAE)
FC Copenhagen (0) v Istanbul Basaksehir (1) 8.55pm
Shakhtar Donetsk (2) v Wolfsburg (1) 8.55pm
Inter Milan v Getafe (one leg only) 11pm
Manchester United (5) v LASK (0) 11pm
Thursday
Bayer Leverkusen (3) v Rangers (1) 8.55pm
Sevilla v Roma (one leg only) 8.55pm
FC Basel (3) v Eintracht Frankfurt (0) 11pm
Wolves (1) Olympiakos (1) 11pm
Your rights as an employee
The government has taken an increasingly tough line against companies that fail to pay employees on time. Three years ago, the Cabinet passed a decree allowing the government to halt the granting of work permits to companies with wage backlogs.
The new measures passed by the Cabinet in 2016 were an update to the Wage Protection System, which is in place to track whether a company pays its employees on time or not.
If wages are 10 days late, the new measures kick in and the company is alerted it is in breach of labour rules. If wages remain unpaid for a total of 16 days, the authorities can cancel work permits, effectively shutting off operations. Fines of up to Dh5,000 per unpaid employee follow after 60 days.
Despite those measures, late payments remain an issue, particularly in the construction sector. Smaller contractors, such as electrical, plumbing and fit-out businesses, often blame the bigger companies that hire them for wages being late.
The authorities have urged employees to report their companies at the labour ministry or Tawafuq service centres — there are 15 in Abu Dhabi.
If you go
Where to stay: Courtyard by Marriott Titusville Kennedy Space Centre has unparalleled views of the Indian River. Alligators can be spotted from hotel room balconies, as can several rocket launch sites. The hotel also boasts cool space-themed decor.
When to go: Florida is best experienced during the winter months, from November to May, before the humidity kicks in.
How to get there: Emirates currently flies from Dubai to Orlando five times a week.
What is an FTO Designation?
FTO designations impose immigration restrictions on members of the organisation simply by virtue of their membership and triggers a criminal prohibition on knowingly providing material support or resources to the designated organisation as well as asset freezes.
It is a crime for a person in the United States or subject to the jurisdiction of the United States to knowingly provide “material support or resources” to or receive military-type training from or on behalf of a designated FTO.
Representatives and members of a designated FTO, if they are aliens, are inadmissible to and, in certain circumstances removable from, the United States.
Except as authorised by the Secretary of the Treasury, any US financial institution that becomes aware that it has possession of or control over funds in which an FTO or its agent has an interest must retain possession of or control over the funds and report the funds to the Treasury Department.
Source: US Department of State
The Limehouse Golem
Director: Juan Carlos Medina
Cast: Olivia Cooke, Bill Nighy, Douglas Booth
Three stars
The Written World: How Literature Shaped History
Martin Puchner
Granta
Electoral College Victory
Trump has so far secured 295 Electoral College votes, according to the Associated Press, exceeding the 270 needed to win. Only Nevada and Arizona remain to be called, and both swing states are leaning Republican. Trump swept all five remaining swing states, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, sealing his path to victory and giving him a strong mandate.
Popular Vote Tally
The count is ongoing, but Trump currently leads with nearly 51 per cent of the popular vote to Harris’s 47.6 per cent. Trump has over 72.2 million votes, while Harris trails with approximately 67.4 million.
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As You Were
Liam Gallagher
(Warner Bros)
Company%20Profile
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Kanguva
Director: Siva
Stars: Suriya, Bobby Deol, Disha Patani, Yogi Babu, Redin Kingsley
From Zero
Artist: Linkin Park
Label: Warner Records
Number of tracks: 11
Rating: 4/5
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
WandaVision
Starring: Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany
Directed by: Matt Shakman
Rating: Four stars
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T20 World Cup Qualifier, Muscat
UAE FIXTURES
Friday February 18: v Ireland
Saturday February 19: v Germany
Monday February 21: v Philippines
Tuesday February 22: semi-finals
Thursday February 24: final
