Northern Ireland v Germany World Cup Qualifier: Watch as world footballing giants arrive into Belfast

Die Mannschaft take on Northern Irealnd at Windsor Park on Monday night

World Cup giants Germany have landed in Belfast this evening ahead of tomorrow’s crunch qualifier against Northern Ireland.

Superstars of the game including Nick Woltemade of Newcastle United, Florian Wirtz of Liverpool, manager Julian Nagelsmann, plus Serge Gnabry and Joshua Kimmich from Bayern Munich looked relaxed as the made their way out of Belfast International Airport to a waiting coach following their Lufthansa flight from Nuremburg.

Group A is finely poised with Northern Ireland, Germany and Slovakia all level on six points with three games played. A positive result against Nagelsmann’s side would put O’Neill’s boys in a healthy position ahead of November’s final two group games.

Meanwhile, Germany boss Nagelsmann has said he is “sorry” if Northern Ireland felt his comments about their style of play were disrespectful.

Nagelsmann caused a stir after Germany’s 3-1 World Cup qualifying win over Northern Ireland in Cologne last month when he said Michael O’Neill’s side play “a lot of long balls” with an approach that “isn’t particularly easy on the eyes”.

The topic has returned to the fore ahead of Monday’s Group A rematch in Belfast, with O’Neill responding by pointing to the number of times Germany pumped the ball long themselves in Cologne and saying it was not his job to worry about what his opponents may think.

Asked about the view that his comments had been disrespectful, Nagelsmann said on Sunday: “I didn’t mean any disrespect. I said it may not be beautiful to watch but the more important topic, the key topic I mentioned is they do it really well. They play long balls with an idea.

“They have a special mood in the team and I also mentioned it’s very difficult to beat this team, they don’t concede many goals and they create a lot of chances also by set-pieces by doing this way of soccer. So if anybody felt it was disrespectful I can say sorry.

“I did not mean it as disrespectful, it was with a lot of respect for the team and the way they play.”

Nagelsmann opened his press conference by repeating his view that Northern Ireland tend to go long, but said he had been impressed by their performance in Friday’s 2-0 win over Slovakia – a result that means Northern Ireland, Germany and Slovakia go into Monday’s games level on six points.

“They created a lot of stress in the final third,” Nagelsmann added. “You have to defend very well with a man covering, to avoid some crosses, to avoid some set-pieces. You have some space to find some counter-attacks but it will not be easy so we have to perform very well to win this game tomorrow.”

With the team buzzing following the 2-0 win over Slovakia on Friday, there will be a bumper crowd expected at the National Stadium in Belfast on Monday, kick-off 7.45pm.

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