Wiggi's alternative take on sports: All quiet on The Western Front Group C Preview (NI Ger, Pol ,Ukr)

It is 75 years ago to the month that Germany began operation Barbarossa, the invasion of Soviet Russia via the part of Poland occupied by the said Soviets and the open breadbasket that is the Ukraine, a move which was probably the beginning of the end for the third Reich.
Three of the main countries involved in that field of operations will meet here, the (as we like to call them in this blog,) Nationalmannschaft of Germany, along with Poland, Ukraine, and little N Ireland trying to keep the peace.
It should be noted, that a lot of Ukrainians were happy to see the Germans and all too eager to collaborate with the them against the more hated soviet Russians. As has been seen by recent events in that part of the world there is still no love lost between Ukraine and Russia to the extent that in footballing terms UEFA made sure they were not in the same qualifying group for this tournament so as to avoid a potential flash point.
We shall have to wait and see what happens if they both advance and end up facing each other in the later stages, but in reality that is a very unlikely scenario.
The Ukranians have some good players but as in the country itself there are divisions in the team between players and discord is rampant. Many commentators think they may go through but I don't think so.

The Germans may have lost the war (twice) in their quest for world domination, but there is no doubt that they have succeeded in that quest in the world of football. They are the current world champions having won the world cup in Brazil in 2014 so becoming the first non S American team to win on that continent.
As I have written before, in a quote supposedly attributed to Gary Lineker

Football is a simple game 22 men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end the Germans always win

The remaining two teams in this group are Poland and Northern Ireland and they have one in thing in common. People think they are stupid, they are the butt of many in jokes, in England it is the Irish in America, the Poles.

The Poles are actually not a bad footballing team, they have in Robert Lewandowski, undoubtedly one of the best strikers in the world at the moment. This season playing for his club team Bayern Munich, he achieved the remarkable feat of scoring 5 goals in 9 minutes as you can see in the link below,

5 in 9 by lewandowsk

The Northern Irish will not be a push over, they are a nice bunch of lads, but they are punching above their weight to borrow a boxing analogy. They will make lots of friends and make everyone smile with a joke or two.

Die Nationalmannnschaft and Poland to go up with Ukraine from 3rd place possibly

Four too watch