Bye-bye Munich, bonjour Paris! The Germany squad spent two days at Bayern’s Säbener Strasse training ground preparing for Friday’s friendly meeting with France (21.00 CET), but the world champions flew to the French capital on Thursday.
“We want to enjoy ourselves and drink in the atmosphere,” said Bayern star Thomas Müller. Müller and his FCB team-mates Jérôme Boateng and Manuel Neuer were also on the plane taking the players to Germany’s final overseas fixture of the calendar year in Paris, where the trio could come up against Kingsley Coman. Neuer is looking forward to the prestige meeting at Stade de France, venue for next summer’s Euro 2016 final: “I’ve never played in Paris before.”
Great games, great opponents
For next Tuesday’s second friendly of the international break, when the Germans meet the Netherlands in Hannover (20:45 CET), the man coach Joachim Löw called “our undisputed number 1” will already be back home. “We want Manuel Neuer to feature as often as possible in these friendlies, but we also have to be fair to the lads behind him,” explained goalkeeping coach Andreas Köpke.
Regardless of the starting line-ups in Paris and Hannover, Germany’s targets are clear-cut. “We want to win both matches,” declared former Bayern striker Lukas Podolski, “they’re great games against great opponents.” Müller has his own take on proceedings: “We’re the entertainers in football and we’re there to make people happy.”
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