Mesut Özil was optimistic ahead of the international break, but his spirit must have been dampened somewhat by a lacklustre performance on Thursday night.

Germany lost 1-0 in Dublin to the Republic of Ireland, so probably qualification to the European Championships has been delayed until the final group game against Georgia on Sunday.

Speaking ahead of the match, the midfielder told Arsenal Player that the Germany side is capable of more.

“I think we’re on a good path, but we know that we have more potential and we want to show that in the upcoming games,” said Özil.

“It’s difficult when you’ve been apart for a long time and then come together again with the national team.

“It’s always more difficult than at your club, where you train together every day and know each other. But we’re on a good way.

“We’ve realised our potential in important games. We know that we can do more but what was important was to get six points.”

This international break, however, hasn’t brought six points. Germany were poor against the Republic of Ireland in a game where Shane Long scored the only goal. Since winning the World Cup in July 2014, one of football’s leading nations has kept just two clean sheets. They came against Georgia and Gibraltar.

Luckily, offensive firepower has seen Germany put themselves on the brink of a place in France next summer, where Özil hopes they play far better than they have recently.

“Hopefully we can do that at the European Championship too, if we qualify, and bring the cup back to Germany.”

They’ll need to be a lot better than they were when Özil had a goal disallowed on Thursday night in order to win another international trophy.