Germany vs Sweden: Die Mannschaft looking to avoid “champions curse”
Germany will be looking to avoid the so-called “champions curse” as they take on Sweden at the Fisht Stadium on Saturday.
Die Mannschaft have had a torrid start to their title defense, as they lost to Mexico for the first time at a World Cup last week. Prior to that, the European giants had a perfect winning record against El Tri, with victories in their past three meetings, but Hirving Lozano’s goal changed all that, and now they’re in desperate need of a win in order to avoid what would be a shocking exit.
This World Cup, however, has produced plenty of surprises. For starters, Argentina is looking like the first big team to head home early after failing to beat Croatia earlier this week. Germany, meanwhile, will be facing a Sweden side who have already defied the odds even to get to Russia. During qualifying, Janne Andersson’s side were in a group alongside the Netherlands and France, and managed to beat the Oranje to second spot. They were then pitted against four-time World Cup winners Italy in a two-legged play-off, and earned a narrow 1-0 win to deny the Azzurri a spot at this summer’s World Cup.
The shock of missing out is still reverberating through Italy, who failed to qualify for the first time since 1958. Ironically, that was when Sweden hosted the tournament, but the Swedes are clearly determined to show they deserve to be in Russia, and did not arrive there just by luck. So far, they’ve managed to see off South Korea thanks to a penalty in another 1-0 win, and will be hoping to take advantage of a Germany side who appeared to be really disjointed and out of sorts against Mexico.
Joachim Low will likely rotate his squad for this game and perhaps start Mario Gomez in lieu of Timo Werner. Of major concern is Mats Hummels, who could miss this game due to a neck injury, whilst Thomas Muller’s ineffective showing against Mexico – he didn’t even register a shot on target – is another serious cause of worry.
Meanwhile, there are some who are still seriously wondering why Leroy Sane wasn’t included, as his pace and trickery would certainly cause problems for any defense, and instead, Low opted to go with the often-injured Marco Reus, who unfortunately missed out on EURO 2016 and the 2014 World Cup due to injury problems. However, Reus has managed to stay fit in the months leading up to this tournament, and is blessed with pace of his own out wide, so could likely be given a start here as Germany look to pull Sweden’s ultra-defensive formation out of shape.
Germany are also unbeaten in three out of their last four World Cup meetings with Sweden. The only time they did lose was in 1958, when Sweden, as hosts, made it to the final. Will die Mannschaft be able to get back on track here? Or will Sweden send them edging ever closer to what would be a shock exit as the “champions curse” strikes yet again?
