Germany has been one of the most successful teams in World Cup history reaching the semi-finals eight times while winning it four times. With their most recent victory being just eight years ago in Brazil, when they shocked the football world by smashing the hosts 7-1 in the semi-finals, Germany’s World Cup glory is not a distant memory. However, recent years have seen a decline in Germany’s once-proud record at important competitions. As the defending champions, Joachim Low’s team headed to Russia in 2018, but they were humiliated by Mexico and South Korea on their way to a humiliating group-stage defeat.
Germany performed better at Euro 2020, emerging from a challenging group that included Portugal and France, but still fell short of their high expectations as they were eliminated by England in the round of 16. Following those consecutive losses, Low’s 15-year reign came to an end, and for the first time since the 2006 World Cup, Germany will enter a major tournament without the 62-year-old in charge. However, it didn’t seem like there was anything to worry about. Because of his past success, Low was able to hold onto his post for a few too many competitions, and Hansi Flick, the treble-winning manager of Bayern Munich, brought new life to the national squad.
Flick, who worked with Low for eight years as his assistant and was a key member of the team that orchestrated Germany’s victory at the 2014 World Cup, has only managed to win one of the last seven games he has supervised after leading Germany to victories in each of his first eight games in command. Furthermore, even the most upbeat Die Mannschaft supporter will probably admit to feeling uneasy when they learned that their team would be competing in this winter’s championship in the same group as Spain. Germany has a surprisingly bad record against Spain, having won only once in their last seven meetings despite being a team used to reaching finals on a regular basis.
For more football news, click here
