News Analysis: A solid piece of work in Georgia: Germany handles the pressure well

If there had been something like a post-World Cup crisis, Germany gave a convincing answer in their EURO 2016 qualifier this Sunday with a 2-0 (2-0) win over Georgia. Marco Reus (39th) and Thomas Mueller (45th) scored the winning goals for head coach Joachim Loew's team in Georgia's capital Tiflis.

After experts back home had criticized the poor campaign so far on the road to the 2016 European Championship in France, Loew has good reason to be satisfied with his team's performance except that Germans failed to take the most of their numerous chances.

Not only did Germany win three points to ease their situation in Group D, it was impressive to see how they totally dominated the majority of the match.

There was no panic - the Germans controlled the game and were looking for a good result - meaning they had a lot of patience which is seen as an attribute of a top class team. The team dealt well with a defensively-minded Georgia and played with a great variety when going forwards, attacking over the flanks and man-on-man through the center and had only few problems in sticking to their tactical plan in the last quarter of the game.

"With all respect, Georgia is not what we are aiming at, but we did not have a good start and had to improve, which we did," said German goalkeeper Manuel Neuer.

"It was a solid game today but there are still some things we have to improve. But there is plenty time do to that. Today, it was important to win three points," said Bastian Schweinsteiger after starting a game for the first time since the World Cup final.

"We need to act more positively which we didn't always do in the second half," said Joachim Loew.

One of the problems during the last month had been overcoming teams that park the bus. Loew chose a 4-5-1 system in which Mario Goetze (one of his team's best) spearheaded the attack.

On top of everything: Loew switched back to a four man defense for this important game in contrast to the warm-up match against Australia (2-2) when the Germans tried a back row of three. The experiment did not work well and was followed by widespread discussion in Germany as to how Loew's team could overcome the certain amount of lethargy that they had shown after having won the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

Against Georgia, Sebastian Rudy (TSG Hoffenheim), Jerome Boateng (Bayern Munich), Mats Hummels (Borussia Dortmund) and newcomer Jonas Hector (FC Cologne and the best German after Goetze) did a good job snuffing out any danger whenever Georgia attacked which was rarely the case. Eighty-seven percent of the German passes hit their target and Loew's team had slightly over 70 percent possession as the World Cup winners Jerome Boateng and Mats Hummelsreturned to back line.

The German midfield - with Bastian Schweinsteiger (Bayern Munich), Mesut Oezil (Arsenal) and Toni Kroos (Real Madrid) with Thomas Mueller (Bayern Munich) and Marco Reus (Borussia Dortmund) down the flanks - took charge for the proceedings for the whole 90 minutes. Schweinsteiger and Kroos had been left out against Australia returned and Sami Khedira (Real Madrid - he is expected to return to the Bundesliga next summer, maybe at Schalke 04) was on the bench.

The game in Georgia was not completely satisfactory for Loew in view of the team's future. He is looking to widen the team's tactical abilities in the next years. The German Football Association and Loew are agreed that a new and competitive team has to be formed in the next three years which end in the 2018 World Cup. Loew recently extended his contract until 2018 meaning he is not only focusing on the 2016 European Championship in France but on the tournament in Russia two years later.

Considering that Loew for the time being is leaving out the country's talented youngsters with the U-21 European Championship coming up in June 2015. Loew and the association regard it as being more important than the rebuilding of the senior team as they see themselves as being in the comfortable position of having enough change their squad's key players and options.

Loew after all now knows his team will most likely secure a berth France - disregarding the fact that the German team still has difficult task of overcoming Poland and Ireland, the qualifying group's top two teams. The game in Georgia was not the festival of football many expect from a world champion, but it was a solid piece of work that helps reduce the pressure.

The players now have the chance to concentrate on their club's competitions until the national team's next games in summer when they face a warm-up against the USA on June 10 followed by the qualifier against Gibraltar. In September and the following weeks full concentration is needed again when Poland and Ireland are waiting. Then Loew will have more options open to him for his squad and nobody in Germany will be talking about the world champion having a crisis anymore. Enditem