So far, Group D of this European Championships qualification cycle has been rather surprising. Poland are atop the group, with World Cup champions Germany three points behind them in a three-way tie for second place alongside Scotland and Ireland. After a loss to Poland and a draw with Ireland, Germany aren’t exactly where they hoped to be after they were hoping to ride their World Cup victory to Euro 2016 success, but they can start to get back on track with a win today.
Georgia vs. Germany live stream: Time, TV schedule and how to watch Euro 2016 qualifying online
The top of Group D in the Euro 2016 qualifiers has been very tight so far, but Germany can get a leg up on some of their competition with a win against Georgia.
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Georgia, on the other hand, are just struggling for relevance. They beat Gibraltar -- no great accomplishment there -- but got hammered by Poland and played poorly en route to losses to Scotland and Ireland. They sit four points back of the second-place pack, and with their next four matches being against those three and group-leading Poland, it looks unlikely that Georgia can find a way back in. There’s definitely some intriguing talent in Kakhaber Tskhadadze’s side, perhaps most notably Valeri Qazaishvili of Vitesse, but in a whole they may just not have what it takes to hang with the big boys and force their way in to a place in Euro 2016.
Key player - Bastian Schweinsteiger (Germany)
Even if the advance of years and nagging injuries have slowed Schweinsteiger down, they can’t stop him from being the beating heart of this Germany side. His skill and energy in midfield allow Joachim Löw to be extremely flexible in how he sets up his side, knowing that he can always count on Schweingsteiger to run the midfield with quality and efficiency no matter the shape of the side or the players around him.
Key Question - Can international form beat club form?
An awful lot of the players in this Germany side are in mediocre form for their club sides, and several players are in dire need of a good rest. That showed in Wednesday's draw with Australia, but the German side has played very well on a whole since the World Cup. If Joachim Löw can't figure out how to get his team to put their club form behind them and tap in to their national team successes instead, they could easily suffer a setback that may prove difficult to overcome with the difficulty of this group.
Match Date/Time: Sunday, 12:00 p.m. ET, local
Venue: Boris Paichasze Arena, Tbilisi, Georgia
TV: Fox Sports 2 (U.S. - English), Fox Deportes (U.S. - Spanish), Sportsnet One (Canada), RTL (Germany), 1TV (Georgia), ITV4 (U.K.)
Online: Fox Soccer 2GO (U.S.), Sportsnet World Now (Canada)
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