Loew urges ‘precision’ against Swiss; Kroos, Kimmich face milestones

Cologne (dpa) – Germany coach Joachim Loew wants his players to do better overall against Switzerland on Wednesday than in their first-ever Nations League victory in Ukraine, with midfielders Toni Kroos and Joshua Kimmich set for personal milestones.

“I expect focus, more precision and courage, and that we make the right decisions going forward. It will no doubt be very different from the Ukraine game. We will have to find solutions to deal with them,” Loew told a news conference on Monday.

Leon Goretzka, who joined the coach in the press conference, also expects the team to “do things better than we did against Ukraine.

“We made a surprising number of misplaced passes and had technical problems. Had we been more precise, we would have won with a bigger score.”

Loew however also said that Saturday’s 2-1 in Ukraine, after a series of three draws in previuos games, was “an important result” for the team which showed “a desire to win.”

Loew also took his time to defend himself from critics in a long monologue when asked whether he had the feeling he couldn’t get things right.

“No, definetly not. Anyone can express criticism, but we already know what we are doing,” Loew said.

“In November 2018 we were down the bottom. Far down! This young team qualified to the Euro ahead of the Netherlands. We have played some very good games.”

Two key players in Loew’s schemes are Real Madrid’s Kroos and Bayern Munich’s full-back-turned-midfielder Kimmich who are set for their 100th and 50th cap, respectively, against the Swiss.

Kroos had his debut just ahead of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and will now be the 15th player to reach 100 games, with Lothar Matthaeus on top with 150 games.

“It definitely means something,” Kroos has said. “I hope it’s a successful game or I cannot take anything from it.”

Kroos won the World Cup in 2014 and the Champions League four times with Bayern and Real Madrid and now says “the biggest target is the Euros” because he is yet to win the continental championship, with the next edition in 2021.

Kimmich, his new partner in the German midfield, hasn’t experienced the glory with the national team so far, making his debut right after Euro 2016 and being part of the disastrous 2018 World Cup campaign when Germany didn’t make it through the group stage.

“They got along very well since the beginning,” Loew has said about the duo. “They link our defence to the attack. Joshua naturally has the advantage that he played in defence before, so when Toni takes more care of building up the game, Joshua can drop deep.

“Toni is very calm. He’s extremely intelligent and always finds a solution. Joshua is the personification of passion and professionalism. He radiates a winning mentality.”

Chelsea forward Timo Werner is meanwhile fit again and could start on Wednesday. He played only a few minutes in Saturday’s 2-1 win in Ukraine in the wake of an illness but Loew said he is back “at full strength” and “available.”

But Loew also said that full back Lukas Klostermann was nursing problems with the knee, Marcel Halstenberg with the adductor muscle, and midfielder Julian Draxler with the Achilles tendon.