Nor it was the rival they wanted. It is true that starting from Pot 2 already provided Germany a tricky draw. And it was Spain the rival that touched the Germans from among the seeded. The memories are not good.
If we go back to 2008 we remember the victory in the final of the European Championship with a goal by Fernando Torres; if we go back to 2010, Puyol’s goal in the semi-finals in South Africa. Two years ago, in 2020, the 6-0 in Seville during the Nations League.
As representatives of the Germans, Hansi Flick (your coach) and Manuel Neuer (the captain) have spoken about the draw and the rivals:
Hansi Flick
“Spain, that’s unbelievable. I’ll have to talk to Lothar about that again. It’s an exciting and interesting group, the matches are not easy. But we have big plans. Here you can’t get an easy group, each one has its own appeal, it shows… We’re happy, we’ll have to be good from the beginning. We want to go as far as possible, preferably to the final.”
Manuel Neuer
“It was clear that we would have a strong opponent in Pot 1. We have negative memories, but something like that doesn’t happen to us twice. We are sure to play a successful tournament. They are all serious rivals. We have to be up to the task. We haven’t covered ourselves in glory in the last few tournaments and we want to make up for that.”
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