A summary of Saturday's action in the 2024 UEFA European Football Championship qualifiers.
Germany's new-look team made a promising return to the international stage with a 1-1 draw against Serbia in a friendly on Wednesday, showing signs of improvement following a disastrous 2018.
Michael Ballack will remain captain of Germany after apologising for his public criticism of coach Joachim Loew. The Chelsea midfielder flew to Frankfurt at the coach's request to discuss comments made to a German newspaper about the way team mate Torsten Frings was dropped for the last two World Cup qualifiers.
'The problems that the film explores still remain. It was a different time when we made the film. We were young and we thought we could change the world.'
A tired and weakened Germany got their Asian Tour got off to a lacklustre start when they were held to a 1-1 draw by a young China team in an international friendly on Friday. Showing the clear effects of a gruelling season, Germany needed an equaliser from Lukas Podolski to cancel out Hao Junmin's opener and avoid an embarrassing defeat to the Chinese, who are 95 places below them in the FIFA rankings.
Argentina have called up Mallorca's Spanish defender Pablo Maffeo for the first time ahead of this month's World Cup qualifiers against Uruguay and Brazil in the squad announced by its FA on Friday.
'From where I started, I was pretty proud of myself to be able to give myself another chance to be here, to qualify and play a second round. It's a good feeling.'
Qatar returns to the spotlight on Friday little more than a year after the first World Cup held in the Arab world when the relocated and delayed 2023 Asian Cup gets underway amid a seismic shift in football's global order.
IMAGES from the UEFA Champions League last 16 matches played on Tuesday
Germany came to Qatar with a leaky defence that had not kept a clean sheet in a competitive game
On his first visit to India after election as Germany's Chancellor, Olaf Scholz had a couple of typically Indian experiences on Sunday, February 26, 2023.
Germany's Lukas Podolski capped his international swansong with a sensational goal to give the world champions a 1-0 victory over England in a friendly on Wednesday.
World Cup winners Germany are no mood to experiment against minnows Gibraltar in their Euro 2016 qualifier on Friday, promising a goal bonanza to make amends for recent poor results.
Poland struck twice on the break to stun wasteful World Cup winners Germany 2-0 on Saturday, earning their first ever victory over their illustrious neighbours and taking control of Euro 2016 qualifying Group D.
'Yes, there have not been any express fast bowlers that are coming from the MRF Pace Foundation that we used to have back in the years.' 'But that's not going to happen anymore. Now, in the next few years, you are gonna see a lot of really good fast bowlers coming out from the MRF Pace Foundation again.'
Twitterati couldn't contain their joy at the upset and hailed Japan for 'pulling off a Saudi Arabia'.
Poland coach Adam Nawalka said he was never concerned about Germany scoring a breakthrough goal as his team held the world champions to a 0-0 draw in Euro 2016 Group C on Thursday.
Brazilians in a northeastern town near Germany's training base adopted an "if you can't beat them, join them" approach to Tuesday's World Cup semi-final defeat by throwing their support behind the side that had thrashed them 7-1 just hours earlier.
Strikes from Freiburg's Ritsu Doan and VfL Bochum's Takuma Asano, who struck from fellow Bundesliga player Ko Itakura's deep free kick, gave the Asians their first ever win over Germany.
Wijnaldum followed up after France goalkeeper Hugo Lloris made a fine stop from point-blank range just before halftime and Depay sealed the victory to give the Dutch a chance to win the group when they meet Germany in Gelsenkirchen on Monday.
The former captain set winning the 2006 World Cup on home soil as his goal after officially taking charge of the national team.
Hockey India said it has drawn up a list of competitions both for the senior men and women's teams in the run-up to next year's Tokyo Olympics. The detailed plan involves playing a number of matches against top teams in the world.
Germany was overwhelmed, badly prepared and below standard at the tournament
Germany's Mario Goetze brushed off criticism of his lacklustre performances at Euro 2016 on Sunday and said players were used to being praised one day and knocked off their pedestal the next.
Germany's players hailed their first victory against Italy in a major tournament as an exceptional moment in their history as they reached the Euro 2016 semi-finals by beating their old rivals 6-5 on penalties.
Neuer is the second Bayern player to be ruled out for months after France international Lucas Hernandez tore a knee ligament in the defending champions' 4-1 win over Australia in their World Cup Group D match last month.
Olympic champions Germany will look to set aside security fears and focus on clinching their third straight world title when the men's hockey World Cup kicks off on Sunday.
German players have no interest in thinking about past losing battles against Italy as they prepare to face them in the Euro 2016 quarter-finals on Saturday, with midfielder Toni Kroos sounding confident they will finally emerge victorious. The Germans have lost all knockout tournament matches against Italy stretching back to 1970 but playmaker Kroos was in no mood to discuss them.
Mario Goetze of Germany slips the ball past Argentina goalkeeper Sergio Romero in the World Cup final on Sunday. Germany won the World Cup for the fourth time on Sunday after substitute Mario Goetze volleyed in a brilliant goal seven minutes from the end of extra-time to secure a 1-0 victory over Argentina at the Maracana.
Mandeep Singh scored a brilliant hat-trick as India pulled off a sensational come-from-behind 5-4 victory over Olympic champions Germany in a fiercely-contested 5th to 8th places classification match in the Hero Hockey World League Finals in Delhi on Friday.
After failing to pick up a medal on the final day, India finished their campaign at the Baku World Cup with four medals.
The third seeded Indian pair of Divij Sharan and Purav Raja made it to the quarter-finals in the ATP Challenger event in Furth, Germany, after a hard-earned victory in the opening round. Left-handed Divij and Raja defeated Andrej Martin of Slovak Republic and Hans Podlipnik-Castillo of Chile 6-3, 1-6, 10-8 in the first round of the euro 30,000 clay-court event.
'The players have been playing in Germany and Europe they've learned so much from that, so we held on'
The message is clear: The 60-year-old wise uncles need to handhold the 40-year-old entrepreneurs when, obsessed with ambition and greed for growth, they become a victim of hubris, points out Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Germany and Uruguay will hope to salvage some pride in their third-place playoff match on Saturday after devastating semi-final defeats earlier this week.
Hundreds of thousands of German fans will be waiting for their World Cup team's return to Berlin and midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger does not want to head to the capital again without a trophy. Germany face European champions Spain in Wednesday's semi-final in Durban hoping to improve on their 2006 exit at the same stage when they hosted the tournament and a defeat by the Spaniards in the Euro 2008 final in Vienna.
England are the favourites to win their World Cup last 16 clash against Germany and, despite their poor form in the tournament so far, they will improve rapidly, the German camp said on Thursday. 'They have so many stars in their team and in our match they are the favourites,' said Germany assistant coach Hansi Flick. 'They play modern football, have gained a lot in tactical matters under Fabio Capello and can beat any team.'
Bjoern Michel scored twice for Germany in a 3-1 victory in the Azlan Shah hockey tournament.
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