No warm-up time for Mr. Ribbeck. Two European Championship qualifiers instead. Germany had lost just one game in all their history while trying to qualify for a major tournament. The Turks have a decent team. But the Germany of old would never have gone down there.
German footballers are past masters at delivering success in an almost metronome-like fashion.
But not now. The team was considered an ageing one as Euro 96 approached, but was still resolute enough to win the whole thing. Vogts went with very much the same players for France '98. Two years older perhaps, but none the wiser for that. It was one big stage too many for some.