Hansi Flick, Manuel Neuer react to Germany’s World Cup draw

The DFB released reactions from Germany manager Hansi Flick and Bayern Munich goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, the national team captain, regarding the World Cup draw.

Germany was placed with Spain, Japan, and the winner of Costa Rica/New Zealand.

“It will not be an easy task, but we have big goals for the tournament. We have to take what comes our way. It’s an exciting, interesting group for all of us. Japan is a team that’s always there. They have many players who play in the Bundesliga and they have high quality. We actually wanted to play a friendly against Japan, but of course that cannot happen anymore,” Flick said. “Costa Rica was our opening match in 2006, we have fond memories of that game. All teams have evolved, all teams have something special. We just have to make sure we advance to the second round.”

For Neuer, the Spain match has already jumped off the page.

“It was clear that we would get a strong opponent from pot one. We have bad memories from our recent game against Spain, but that doesn’t happen to us twice. We are confident that we’ll play a successful tournament,” Neuer remarked.