Germany boss Julian Nagelsmann to apologise to Northern Ireland: 'I will say sorry'

Germany boss Julian Nagelsmann has been forced to backtrack on his comments regarding Northern Ireland after he claimed that they had a "special way" of playing which was "not brilliant to watch" after the two sides met in Cologne last month.

The Germans ran out 3-1 winners on that occasion, but the assessment from the ex-Bayern Munich boss would see him criticised and he's now clarified his remarks ahead of a rematch in Belfast.

After their clash in September, which saw Serge Gnabry and Florian Wirtz among the goals for the hosts, Nagelsmann was critical of the Northern Irishman and commented on the amount of long balls they played.

Michael O'Neill recently claimed that it was not his job to set up his team for the benefit of the opposition whilst former Northern Ireland defender Stephen Craigan said that Nagelsmann's take "was a bit disrespectful"

The German manager has now come out and claimed his comments were meant in a disrespectful manner. He said: "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."

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"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 create a lot of chances also by set-pieces by doing this way. If anybody felt it was disrespectful, I will say sorry. I did not mean it as disrespectful, it was with a lot of respect for the team and they way they play."

Germany and Northern Ireland have both won two of their three games in World Cup qualifying. The Germans sit top by virtue of goal difference and Nagelsmann insists the hosts will not be "easy to beat" at Windsor Park, where they are unbeaten in seven games.

"They have a really special way [of playing] and we need every player on the pitch to defend these situations," he said. "The first leg it was not easy to beat this team. They play a lot of long balls, they cover all the space and to win the second ball you have to fight, the third and the fourth balls as well. We saw it in the last game against Slovakia, they did it really well and they created a lot of stress in the final third."

On Friday Germany secured a comfortable win over Luxembourg, who were down to ten men. Joshua Kimmich was among the goals with Nagelsmann looking to make his homeland a force once more following several disappointing tournaments.

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