Frankfurt/Main
National coach Joachim Löw is still hoping for a last-minute go for his England quintet. Ilkay Gündogan would very much regret a cancellation for corona reasons.
“Of course I would be disappointed,” said the Manchester City professional, who has been in top form for weeks, on the ARD talk show “maischberger.die woche” about the threat of compulsory waiver of the upcoming three international matches in March for the national soccer team in qualifying for the World Cup .
Shortly before Löw nominated the squad on Friday afternoon, the German Football Association’s discussions with the health authorities continued under high pressure behind the scenes. A regulation must be found for Gündogan and his colleagues Timo Werner, Kai Havertz and Antonio Rüdiger from Chelsea, who are also employed in England, and substitute goalkeeper Bernd Leno from Arsenal.
“The state was that they cannot play in Germany and it is actually pointless to let them enter. But we are in good talks with the health department in Düsseldorf and Duisburg as a venue,” said DFB director Oliver Bierhoff in a digital media -Talk of the DFB on Thursday.
Because of the valid regulations in the corona pandemic, the five would have to be in quarantine after arriving from England and could not participate in the games against Iceland (March 25) and North Macedonia (March 31) in Duisburg. But they are confident “that we can invite the legionnaires,” said Bierhoff. Obviously, Löw will conditionally call the players into his squad on Friday.
“To this day I still don’t know. I have no choice but to wait and be patient,” said Gündogan. “They didn’t know exactly whether they could nominate me,” he said of discussions with Löw and Bierhoff. The authorities are not even expected to give the go-ahead until after the nomination. “That will be decided in the next one or two days from discussions with the health authorities,” said Bierhoff.
Moving the games abroad to solve the problem elegantly is still out of the question for the DFB. “The coaches said we would follow the rules. We are not considering going abroad for an international match that is to be played in Germany. And if necessary, you would play without the England legionnaires,” said Bierhoff.
Several Champions League games, including the encounters between RB Leipzig against Liverpool FC and Borussia Mönchengladbach against Gündogans Citizens, were recently moved to Budapest to circumvent Corona regulations.
The UK is currently counted as a virus variant area. There should be an update of the classifications by the health, foreign and interior ministries on Friday, the DFB could be informed beforehand. Changes to the regulations for Great Britain are currently not expected due to the pandemic situation. Gündogan and Co. apparently need an exemption for the quarantine regulation from the local health authorities.
Between the games in Duisburg, the national team will face Romania in Bucharest on March 28th. Löw has rejected the idea of having the England professionals flown in just for the game in Bucharest. The international triple pack marks the start of qualification for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
For Löw, these are the first games after he announced his departure for the time after the EM in the summer. They are also the last opportunity for the national coach to test personnel before the EM squad nomination in May. The national coach has definitely ruled out a comeback for Mats Hummels (32), Thomas Müller (31) and Jérome Boateng (32), who were eliminated two years ago. In the expected XXL squad, however, there will be teenagers Jamal Musiala (18) from FC Bayern Munich and Florian Wirtz (17) from Bayer Leverkusen.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210318-99-875798 / 3
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