Podolski: No Germany crisis despite slow start

Germany's only victory since beating Argentina in July's World Cup final came against Scotland in September, a Thomas Muller double securing a 2-1 win.

Joachim Low's side subsequently slumped to a first defeat against Poland at the weekend, before being held to a 1-1 draw by the Republic of Ireland in Gelsenkirchen on Tuesday.

However, Podolski - who came off the bench to play the second half against Ireland - says there is no need to panic and puts Germany's recent struggles down to bad luck. 

"The fact that the media want to call it a crisis is expected," said the Arsenal forward. "It was not our aspiration to win just one point in these two games [against Poland and Ireland].

"We didn't play bad games at all but anyway, this is football and it wasn't enough.

"We had many players who played in the World Cup. So maybe it's just bad luck."

Germany are three points behind Poland and Ireland in Group D, and will be expected to win comfortably when they host Gibraltar next month.