How Germany Went Down to Hard-Working Poland Without Their World Cup Stars

Poland notched their first competitive win over Germany in 19 tries on Saturday night, stunning the World Cup winners with a 2-0 victory in Warsaw in the two teams' Euro 2016 qualifier. It marked the first qualifying-match loss for Joachim Low's team since 2007 and their first competitive defeat since becoming world champions. 

This result now knocks Group D wide open, with Poland, the Republic of Ireland and Scotland all above the Germans in the group through points won or simple goal difference. 

Germany had always been considered strong favourites going into the game, but after a number of failed assaults on Wojciech Szczesny's goal, the home side took the lead when a well-crossed ball from Lukasz Piszczek found Arkadiusz Milik to header the ball home in the 51st minute. 

Low's side then huffed and puffed to find an equaliser, but as is so often the case in football, it just never seemed to be. Poland grabbed a second goal late just before full-time and confirmed their famous victory. 

What will trouble most German fans is the fact that this wasn't a bad performance from their national team. Poland worked hard and ultimately deserved their win, but no glaring mistakes or tactical faults stand out for the world champions. Germany simply lacked that magic touch; or rather, they lacked the players that made them special over the summer.

Alik Keplicz/Associated Press

Bayer Leverkusen's Karim Bellarabi was a delight on his international debut for the national team, as he took to the task of shining in undoubtedly Germany's toughest game of the group.

On the right side of attack and then the left late in the first half, the winger constantly threatened and almost opened the scoring when an acute Mario Gotze cross found him with time and space to get a shot away. 

Despite ultimately losing the game, the Leverkusen star was continuously in the right place at the right time, creating opportunities for Germany from both wings and through the middle. 

Yet what we also saw was a player who wasn't quite ready to command such opportunities perhaps quite like more senior members of the squad. Bellarabi turned, sprinted and jinked past defenders just like Marco Reus, but when he found himself in goal-scoring opportunities, he failed to convert them quite like the Borussia Dortmund star. 

Reus' own club teammate Erik Durm was another perfect example of the problems Low has had with forcibly bleeding in too many young players a little too quickly. 

The left-back looked bright and performed perfectly well throughout the match. In the final minutes of the game, however, his former teammate Robert Lewandowski highlighted his inexperience. Lewandowski comfortably kept Durm at bay whilst laying off Sebastian Mila for the second goal in the 88th minute. 

In Durm's defence, Marcel Schmelzer's recent injury all but confirmed Durm's inclusion against Poland, despite his poor run of form for Dortmund since returning from the World Cup in the summer. For one reason or another, this player should have never really been on the pitch in Warsaw on Saturday. 

It's moments like this that undoubtedly frustrate Low to no end. If Germany had been able to play Philipp Lahm at left-back on Saturday night, such a goal may have never come about. Yet the former captain is now retired, and so the national team must struggle on without such a star for now. 

Ultimately, it was the tough, proven pair of Bastian Schweinsteiger and Sami Khedira that Germany missed the most on the night. 

In Toni Kroos and Christoph Kramer, Germany have two outstanding talents, yet both simply kept the tempo ticking along without really stepping into danger's way for the sake of their side. 

Where Schweinsteiger would throw himself into opposing defensive midfielders and Khedira would find himself in useful spaces all over the pitch, both Kramer and Kroos played it safe. That ultimately allowed the Polish midfield pairing of Grzegorz Krychowiak and Tomasz Jodłowiec to bully them and ensure no German attack found its way through the centre of the pitch. 

Germany ultimately lacked the killer touch that made them world champions in the first place. They were missing not only a technical ability to pierce through an opposing side and finish chances but also the physical attributes and experience to bully their opposition into submission.

Now with just an unconvincing victory over Scotland to show for two qualifying games, the pressure is on Low and his new batch of players: Match the expectations of Germany's former World Cup stars or simply let this tough qualifying group take it from you.

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