{"id":197547,"date":"2025-10-13T17:30:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T17:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/197547\/"},"modified":"2025-10-13T17:30:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T17:30:07","slug":"nagelsmann-sorry-if-long-ball-northern-ireland-comments-seen-as-disrespectful-world-cup-2026-qualifiers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/197547\/","title":{"rendered":"Nagelsmann sorry if \u2018long ball\u2019 Northern Ireland comments seen as disrespectful | World Cup 2026 qualifiers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Germany manager, Julian Nagelsmann, has said he is \u201csorry\u201d if Northern Ireland<\/a> felt his comments about their style of play were disrespectful.<\/p>\n

Nagelsmann caused a stir after Germany\u2019s 3-1 World Cup qualifying win<\/a> over Northern Ireland in Cologne last month when he said Michael O\u2019Neill\u2019s side play \u201ca lot of long balls\u201d with an approach that \u201cisn\u2019t particularly easy on the eyes\u201d.<\/p>\n

The topic has returned to the fore ahead of Monday\u2019s Group A rematch in Belfast, with O\u2019Neill responding by pointing to the number of times Germany<\/a> pumped the ball long themselves in Cologne and saying it was not his job to worry about what his opponents may think.<\/p>\n

Asked about the view that his comments had been disrespectful, Nagelsmann said on Sunday: \u201cI didn\u2019t mean any disrespect. I said it may not be beautiful to watch but the more important topic, the key topic I mentioned is they do it really well. They play long balls with an idea.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have a special mood in the team and I also mentioned it\u2019s very difficult to beat this team, they don\u2019t concede many goals and they create a lot of chances by set pieces. So if anybody felt it was disrespectful, I can say sorry.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did not mean it as disrespectful, it was with a lot of respect for the team and the way they play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nagelsmann opened his press conference by repeating his view that Northern Ireland tend to go long, but said he had been impressed by their performance in Friday\u2019s 2-0 win over Slovakia<\/a> \u2013 a result that means Northern Ireland, Germany and Slovakia go into Monday\u2019s games level on six points.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey created a lot of stress in the final third,\u201d Nagelsmann said. \u201cYou have to defend very well with a man covering, to avoid some crosses, to avoid some set pieces. You have some space to find some counterattacks but it will not be easy so we have to perform very well to win this game tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Florian Wirtz scored Germany\u2019s decisive third goal in Cologne with an outstanding free-kick, but it remains the only goal Liverpool\u2019s \u00a3116m signing has managed this season. That is despite the 22-year-old creating more chances, 21, than any other player in the Premier League so far.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s the normal way when you go to a new club, to a new league, it\u2019s not that easy at the beginning,\u201d Nagelsmann said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cHe will adapt, I think, very quickly, and he will score goals for Liverpool and he will create a lot of chances. Probably he can score tomorrow and I will be very happy for him and for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if he had noticed a difference in Wirtz\u2019s confidence amid recent scrutiny, Nagelsmann added: \u201cI think the first time when we met after the summer period, it was kind of special for him because he was new at Liverpool and then in the first time in the national team [after his move].<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a long meeting and discussed the situation but now he\u2019s the old Wirtz, a good mood, and I hope we will see him perform tomorrow evening very well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Germany manager, Julian Nagelsmann, has said he is \u201csorry\u201d if Northern Ireland felt his comments about their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197548,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-197547","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}