Moscow - Germany coach Joachim Loew said Friday he was going into Saturday's key World Cup qualifier against Russia with a "good feeling."Loew stated his team was fully prepared for the Group 4 match on artificial turf at the Luzhniki stadium.
"It's not a must-win game for us so we don't have to do anything crazy," he said at a news conference in Moscow, indicating a line-up with possibly one striker.
A win would almost definitely put Russia into next year's finals in South Africa, but Loew will be content with a draw to stay a point ahead before Germany's final match Wednesday against Finland in Hamburg. Russia face Azerbaijan in Baku in their last group match.
"Small things will decide the outcome of this match," Loew said.
"We have to be fully concentrated for the whole game and defend with 10 or 11 men including the goalkeeper when we have to, but try to get forward immediately when we have the ball.
"We will not make the mistake of sitting back too deeply and merely reacting to what the opponents do."
Loew's side beat Russia 2-1 in the first meeting on their home soil last autumn and Germany have only lost three of 18 matches overall against Russian/Soviet teams, the last in 1985.
The Germany squad has trained all week on an artificial pitch at Mainz ahead of a first-ever match for a German national team on the synthetic surface.
"We have had problems with the surface but the players are now getting used to it," Loew said.
