Scotland’s players had a choice of viewing at the team hotel on Wednesday night. They could watch live coverage of Germany, their next opponents, playing Argentina in a rerun of the World Cup final. Or they could take in England’s friendly against Norway at Wembley.
Barry Bannan, the Crystal Palace midfielder, was asked yesterday which he had opted for. Surely, it was an opportunity for him and his team-mates to analyse the world champions ahead of Scotland’s visit to Dortmund this weekend? “Nah, I was watching England,” he said. “And I fell asleep.”
Which is a shame, for he would have enjoyed the pictures from Düsseldorf. In their first outing since winning the World Cup, an experimental Germany side were thrashed 4-2 by Argentina, for whom Ángel Di María, Manchester United’s new attacker, created three goals and scored the other. Of course, Joachim Löw’s men will be a different proposition on Sunday night, but it offered Scotland a glimmer of hope.
In the build-up to the opening match of their Euro 2016 qualifying campaign, Scotland’s players and staff have been asked repeatedly about Germany’s 7-1 battering of Brazil in the World Cup semi-final, as though it were how they played every time. As Bannan pointed out yesterday, few remember the close games they had with Ghana, US, Algeria and France.
“The Brazil game was a freak result,” he said. “I watched all of the Germany games and I saw one before the finals where they looked a bit shaky. It’s easy to look at the Brazil game and think they were brilliant, but I also think Brazil were bad that night.
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“Germany are the strongest and best team in the world at the moment, but we are on a high as well. We’ve faced really good teams, such as Spain a couple of years ago, and taken them all the way. We don’t fear them. We are just looking forward to going out there and seeing how good they really are.”
All of which will come back to haunt Bannan if Scotland lose 7-1, but he believes in his international team-mates, who have provided him with a kind of sanctuary from the vagaries of club football. During five years with Aston Villa, he had a hard time persuading managers that he deserved a regular start. Then, six months after joining Crystal Palace in 2013, he fell out of favour with Tony Pulis, the manager.
There have been no such issues at international level. Lack of height, a trait that has counted against him in the Premier League, is commonplace in Gordon Strachan’s squad. Since taking over 20 months ago, the manager has repeatedly been loyal to Bannan when others have not.
“If you are not playing at club level, it starts to creep into your mind that you are not doing so well,” Bannan said. “But then you get a call-up for your country and it gives you a boost again. I have to thank him a lot. It’s been brilliant to have Scotland.
“When the squads get announced, you are always a wee bit worried you are not going to be involved. That’s normal when you’re not playing for your club. But the manager has shown great faith in me. Every time I come away, I love it. It’s a great atmosphere and the training is brilliant. Hopefully, if called upon on Sunday, I can do a job for him.”
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In the summer, Bannan contemplated leaving Palace before Pulis unexpectedly resigned on the eve of the new season. Now the 24-year-old Scot has to persuade Neil Warnock, the new manager, that he can be relied upon every week. He was left out of the match against Newcastle United on Saturday, but he was also encouraged to hear that the club had rejected attempts by three different clubs to take him on loan.
“It’s about getting a run of games and staying in the team,” Bannan said. “I’ve always had runs of four or five games in and then four or five games out. It’s about finding a manager who believes in me and plays me week-in, week-out.”
Maybe Bannan is better suited to international football. He reads the game well and passes the ball beautifully, so much so that some have compared him, in style at least, to Xavi and Andrés Iniesta. He admires the Germans, particularly Toni Kroos — “his passing range is unbelievable” — but they are not his favourite team.
“I like the Spanish style more,” said Bannan, whose aim is to bring a dash of that to Dortmund on Sunday night.
Joachim Löw, the Germany coach, says his side will be unrecognisable from the one beaten 4-2 by Argentian when they face Scotland on Sunday. Germany will be without Mesut Özil, Mats Hummels, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Julian Draxler while Jérôme Boateng, the defender, is a doubt.
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“You could see that a large number of our players only had a short preparation this season,” Löw said. “We only had two days together as a team and on top of that we were missing a lot of players who cannot be replaced that easily.” Meanwhile, Lukas Podolski, the Arsenal and Germany forward, has stoked the fires before the game by claiming Scotland will play “dirty”. “I think they will play a dirty game,” he said. “Our focus is on winning the game on Sunday.”