It’s not been a great start for Germany’s World Cup defence. After opening their campaign with a defeat against Mexico in group F, the squad have held “crisis talks” to discuss the “debacle”.
Germany’s second game is against group leaders Sweden on Saturday (7pm, live on ITV) and skipper Manuel Neuer revealed that the players did not hold back at each other when speaking about the 1-0 loss to the Mexicans.
Quoted by The Daily Telegraph the goalkeeper said: “We didn’t mince words, because we want to make things better against Sweden. We talked a lot. We’re our harshest critics. It was a wake-up call – there has never been such strong words within the team.”
One of the players who has come under fire is playmaker Mesut Ozil. The Telegraph says there are “mounting calls” for Germany head coach Joachim Low to drop the midfielder for the Sweden clash.