National team
Nagelsmann’s EM announcement: compete to win titles
National coach Julian Nagelsmann wants to win the European Championship title with the DFB team. photo
© Arne Dedert/dpa
A week after the contract extension, Julian Nagelsmann specified his European Championship goal. It reads: winning the title. But the national coach knows that the tournament scenario is difficult to calculate.
With a level of clarity that has not yet been expressed Julian Nagelsmann’s goal was to win the title with the national soccer team at the home European Championship.
“If you take part in a tournament, take part in a game, the basic idea should be to win it. We promised the basic idea again at the last course. We will also illustrate this again as far as the players are concerned,” said Nagelsmann in an interview with Magenta TV. “It is legitimate and healthy to set an example that we as a coaching team and as a team are competing to win the title,” added the 36-year-old.
So far, Nagelsmann had not announced a specific European Championship goal. DFB President Bernd Neuendorf mentioned reaching the semi-finals as a milestone. The national coach now made it clear. “In any case, we should get through the preliminary round, of course, and then one or two knockout rounds in order to speak of a good European Championship in terms of results,” he said in the “Best Cast” talk format published on Thursday. Nagelsmann did not answer whether his own future as national coach depends on a European Championship performance due to the contract that has just been extended until the 2026 World Cup.
Nagelsmann is hoping for the European Championship final
A European Championship success is difficult to measure based on purely sporting performance, said Nagelsmann. “You have to wait and see how the games go, including who you play against. If you’re first in the group, you can still face a very good opponent. In the worst case scenario, we would be eliminated from the tournament and still ask, how did we play, how did we get them “We also inspired people, how we inspired ourselves, awakened our emotions in a good way,” said Nagelsmann.
In the group stage, the DFB team will face Scotland (June 14th/Munich), Hungary (June 19th/Stuttgart) and Switzerland (June 23rd/Frankfurt). As a group winner, you would face the second place in Group C, possibly England or Denmark, in the round of 16 in Dortmund. As a group runner-up, you would face the second in Group B in Berlin, which includes Spain, Italy and Croatia, among others. You could also progress as third in the group, then there would be various options for the first knockout game.
The final will take place on July 14th in Berlin. Then he will “hopefully see a very good game from us,” said Nagelsmann when asked about his plans for that day.