Germany coach Joachim Loew has banned talk of a record-breaking win against San Marino in their Euro 2008 qualifier in Nuremberg today, telling his team to forget about the margin of victory. Germany, who lead Group D on goal difference from the Czech Republic and Ireland, won 13-0 away to San Marino in September.
Inevitably, the talk this week has been about how much further they can go with a home crowd behind them, but Loew is just anxious to get six points from the game and next week's clash with Slovakia in Hamburg.
"We want to win against San Marino and we will win," Loew said. "We also want to score a lot of goals, but the margin of victory is not up for discussion."
Germany's biggest victory was 16-0 against Russia at the Olympic Games in Stockholm in 1912. Their chances of getting close to that have been hit by injuries to captain Michael Ballack and Bastian Schweinsteiger and Lukas Podolski of Bayern Munich.
Striker Miroslav Klose will start, probably alongside Kevin Kuranyi. The absence of Ballack will see either Bernd Schneider or Piotr Trochowski take the central midfield role alongside Torsten Frings.
