Germany’s Lahm already eyeing World Cup

Germany captain Philipp Lahm is confident the team will put on a good show in Hannover tonight when they begin their World Cup qualifying campaign against Group C minnows the Faroe Islands.

Joachim Low’s side are the favourites to top a pool which also contains Kazakhstan, Austria, Sweden and the Republic of Ireland.

They looked in dominant form at the European Championships over the summer as they progressed smoothly to the semi-finals.

However, the wheels then came off against a stubborn Italy side prompting Low and his staff to go back to the drawing board. A 3-1 defeat to Argentina last month did little to convince fans lessons have been learnt, but Lahm insists the team has improved and now wants one thing and one thing only — to win the World Cup.

“Against Italy we made tactical errors,” said the Bayern Munich defender. “Now we have two years to improve ourselves. We have a new qualifying campaign and that will take us forward. The team is hungry, we want to give the fans something back for their great support. The Faroe Islands are a compact opponent but we can put on a good show.

“Our aim can no longer be to reach the quarter-finals of a tournament. It is a long, hard road ahead of us, there are no guarantees, but we want to win the title.”