DUESSELDORF, Germany (AP) — A World Cup without Germany used to be unthinkable. Now the four-time champion needs to turn things around to ensure a spot at next year's tournament.
A shock 2-0 loss to Slovakia in World Cup qualifying means Julian Nagelsmann's team may need a perfect record in the rest of its qualifiers, starting with wins over Luxembourg on Friday and Northern Ireland on Monday.
“Everyone expects of us that we'll beat every opponent 5-0, 6-0 but that's no longer possible,” midfielder Nadiem Amiri said in comments reported by German agency dpa. “The times have simply changed. Everyone's good, everyone can hold their own. For us it's just important to win. We need win after win.”
The qualifying format — a four-team group where only the winner qualifies automatically — means Germany must win each of its remaining games unless Slovakia slips up, and get ahead of Slovakia on goal difference too. Second place would put Germany into a bracket of four teams competing for one spot early next year.
If Germany did fail to make it to the expanded, 48-team World Cup, it would be a historic shock.
Until its loss in Slovakia last month, Germany had never lost a World Cup qualifying game away from home. The only times it's missed the men's World Cup were the inaugural 13-team 1930 event, which it skipped along with most of Europe, and 1950, when it was excluded following World War II.
Of course, even when it has qualified, Germany hasn't always produced the goods.
Group-stage exits in 2018 and 2022 were huge disappointments for a team which had top-class individual players but didn't seem to gel as a team. A goose-themed motivational talk by then-coach Hansi Flick at the 2022 World Cup fell flat and seemed to typify the lack of enthusiasm.
That all means Germany hasn't played a World Cup knockout game since winning the 2014 final.
Germany's qualification fight has been made harder by injuries.
Barcelona's Marc-André ter Stegen would be first-choice goalkeeper if fit but hasn't played all year, while Real Madrid defender Antonio Rüdiger is out with a muscle injury and Bayern Munich's attacking midfield star Jamal Musiala likely won't return until the new year.
Nagelsmann seems intent on forging a partnership between Florian Wirtz and Newcastle's Nick Woltemade, but Wirtz has yet to find his best form since his Liverpool move and Woltemade has had a flu-like illness this week. That meant the tall striker was training separately Wednesday.
There's extra attention on new player Nathaniel Brown, a left back from Eintracht Frankurt who would also be eligible for the United States. Brown faces the challenge of doing better than his Frankfurt teammate Nnamdi Collins, who was dropped after costly errors on debut in the Slovakia loss.
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Germany's head coach Julian Nagelsmann gives instructions during training session of the German national soccer team in Herzogenaurach, Germany, Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025, ahead of the World Cup qualifier soccer match against Luxembourg. (Federico Gambarini/dpa via AP)
Germany's Florian Wirtz, center, lifts a leg during training session of the German national soccer team in Herzogenaurach, Germany, Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025, ahead of the World Cup qualifier soccer match against Luxembourg. (Federico Gambarini/dpa via AP)
Germany's head coach Julian Nagelsmann, left, and player david Raum attend a training session of the German national soccer team in Herzogenaurach, Germany, Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025, ahead of the World Cup qualifier soccer match against Luxembourg. (Federico Gambarini/dpa via AP)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — President Donald Trump on Sunday claimed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “hasn’t read” a U.S-authored peace proposal aimed at ending the Russia-Ukraine war.
Trump was critical of Zelenskyy after U.S. and Ukrainian negotiators completed three days of talks on Saturday aimed at trying to narrow differences on the U.S. administration’s proposal. But in an exchange with reporters on Sunday night, Trump suggested that the Ukrainian leader is holding up the talks from moving forward.
“I’m a little bit disappointed that President Zelenskyy hasn’t yet read the proposal, that was as of a few hours ago. His people love it. But he hasn’t — Russia’s fine with it,” Trump told reporters on the red carpet at the Kennedy Center Honors. “Russia is, I believe, fine with it, but I’m not sure that Zelenskyy’s fine with it. His people love it, but he hasn’t read it.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin also hasn’t publicly expressed approval for the White House plan. In fact, Putin last week had said that aspects of Trump’s proposal were unworkable, even though the original draft heavily favored Moscow.
Trump has had a hot-and-cold relationship with Zelenskyy since riding into a second White House term insisting that the war was a waste of U.S. taxpayer money. Trump has also repeatedly urged the Ukrainians to cede land to Russia to bring an end to a now nearly four-year conflict he says has cost far too many lives.
Zelenskyy said Saturday he had a “substantive phone call” with the American officials engaged in the talks with a Ukrainian delegation in Florida. He said he had been given an update over the phone by U.S. and Ukrainian officials at the talks.
“Ukraine is determined to keep working in good faith with the American side to genuinely achieve peace,” Zelenskyy wrote on social media.
Trump’s criticism of Zelenskyy came as Russia on Sunday welcomed the Trump administration’s new national security strategy in comments by the Kremlin spokesman published by Russia’s Tass news agency.
Dmitry Peskov said the updated strategic document, which spells out the administration’s core foreign policy interests, was largely in line with Moscow’s vision.
“There are statements there against confrontation and in favor of dialogue and building good relations,” he said, adding that Russia hopes this would lead to “further constructive cooperation with Washington on the Ukrainian settlement.”
The document released Friday by the White House said the U.S. wants to improve its relationship with Russia after years of Moscow being treated as a global pariah and that ending the war is a core U.S. interest to “reestablish strategic stability with Russia.”
Speaking on Saturday at the Reagan National Defense Forum, Trump’s outgoing Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, said efforts to end the war were in “the last 10 meters.”
He said a deal depended on the two outstanding issues of “terrain, primarily the Donbas,” and the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.
Russia controls most of Donbas, its name for the Donetsk and neighboring Luhansk regions, which, along with two southern regions, it illegally annexed three years ago. The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant is in an area that has been under Russian control since early in Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and is not in service. It needs reliable power to cool its six shutdown reactors and spent fuel, to avoid any catastrophic nuclear incidents.
Kellogg, who is due to leave his post in January, was not present at the talks in Florida.
Separately, officials said the leaders of the United Kingdom, France and Germany would participate in a meeting with Zelenskyy in London on Monday.
As the three days of talks wrapped up, Russian missile, drone and shelling attacks overnight and Sunday killed at least four people in Ukraine.
A man was killed in a drone attack on Ukraine’s northern Chernihiv region Saturday night, local officials said, while a combined missile and drone attack on infrastructure in the central city of Kremenchuk caused power and water outages. Kremenchuk is home to one of Ukraine’s biggest oil refineries and is an industrial hub.
Kyiv and its Western allies say Russia is trying to cripple the Ukrainian power grid and deny civilians access to heat, light and running water for a fourth consecutive winter, in what Ukrainian officials call “weaponizing” the cold.
Three people were killed and 10 others wounded Sunday in shelling by Russian troops in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, according to the regional prosecutor’s office.
This story was first published on Dec. 7, 2025. It was updated on Dec. 8, 2025 to correct that Trump said Zelenskyy hadn’t read the latest proposal, rather than that he wasn’t ready to accept it.
AP writers Darlene Superville and Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed reporting.
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
President Donald Trump talks to the media while walking the red carpet before the 48th Kennedy Center Honors, Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025, at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
FILE- Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attends a Kyrgyzstan-Russia talk at the Administrative complex Yntymak-Manas Ordo, in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Nov. 26, 2025. (Alexander Kazakov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File)
In this photo provided by Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade press service, a soldier tests land drones in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025, (Andriy Andriyenko/Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade via AP)
In this photo, provided by Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade press service, a soldier tests land drones in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025, (Andriy Andriyenko/Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade via AP)
