🫣 Is Germany at risk too? These top nations failed to qualify | OneFootball

England, Italy, Argentina, France, Germany – all nations that we usually see at the top in major tournaments like the World Cup or European Championship. Most of the time, they achieve flawless qualifications, which are seen more as friendlies and a mere formality.

This was also the general sentiment regarding Germany’s qualifying group for the World Cup in the USA, Canada, and Mexico next year. Some even spoke of a lucky draw after the groups were announced: With Slovakia, Northern Ireland, and Luxembourg, there are teams waiting that are ranked somewhere between 52 and 92 in the FIFA World Rankings and should actually allow for a qualification without dropping any points.

Well, we all know how it went: The match against Slovakia already went wrong. And even though the DFB team still has a good chance to qualify for the tournament and has the opportunity for redemption tonight at 8:45 p.m. at the Rhein-Energie-Stadion in Cologne against Northern Ireland, of course, it’s fair to speculate.

What if the World Cup takes place without Germany? It’s actually almost unimaginable. However, the DFB squad wouldn’t be the first top nation to fail disastrously in qualifying for a major tournament and embarrass itself in front of the whole world.

Qualification failures by top nations are not isolated cases

Italy has already shown in recent history how not to do it. The Squadra Azzurra missed not only the 2018 World Cup in Russia, but also failed to qualify in 2022. In between, they even won the 2021 European Championship. But in 2022, they were knocked out in the play-off duel against North Macedonia. In the 80s, it was the other way around: As reigning world champions, Italy missed the European Championship in France at that time.

By the way, Italy wasn’t the only nation in 2018: The Netherlands also failed in qualifying and did not make it. For some players, it must have felt like déjà vu: In 2016, Oranje already missed a finals tournament – namely the European Championship in France.

The English also often found qualification tougher than expected, though that was a while ago: In 1974, the ‘Three Lions’ missed the World Cup for the first time, which was held in Germany. Four years later, they missed it again. In the 90s, England finished only third in their qualifying group behind Norway and the Netherlands and missed the World Cup in the USA. The European Championship has also taken place several times without England, most recently in 2008.

The current European champions Spain, by the way, also failed once in qualifying for a World Cup – in 1974, against Yugoslavia.

Missed four times, then World Champion!

France, on the other hand, has had a very special hero’s journey: From 1970 to 1994, they missed the World Cup a total of four times (!!!), before becoming world champions in 1998 on home soil after defeating defending champions Brazil in the final.

Before the 1970 World Cup, all eyes were on Argentina – considered one of the strongest teams at the time. But it was all in vain: Argentina didn’t even qualify.

These are just a few of many examples – and as we can see: Every now and then, a major tournament takes place without one of the nations we would normally rank at the top. That this worst-case scenario will happen to Nagelsmann’s team is (still) very unlikely – for now, only the detour through the play-offs looms.

What do you think? Will the German national team get back on track tonight against Northern Ireland? Or will the Slovakia debacle repeat itself?

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.

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