Ahead of Sunday's match in the Georgian capital Tbilisi, Germany coach Joachim Löw was trotting out the martial metaphors.

"The all-deciding thing is to take the three points," Löw told reporters ahead of the game.

"This is the sort of team you have to pin back, play into the ground, beat down and force to their knees. It's not going to be simple."

Löw's rather drastic choice of words reflected the fact that Germany's 2016 European Championship qualification campaign has thus far been pretty lackluster, even lackadaisical.

The World Cup winners suffered a surprising loss to Poland and a home draw to the Republic of Ireland in the previous two competitive matches.

That has left them second in Group D, level on points with Ireland and Scotland. Löw's remarks can be read as less an attempt to intimidate his opponents than as a signal to his own players that nap time is over, especially a dozy performance in a 2-2 draw in a friendly versus Australia mid-week.

"We'll be revving up our engines compared with Australia," the German coach promised.

Note: Hosts France will join 23 qualifiers in the final tournament draw, with the teams drawn into six groups of four teams. The top two and the four best third-placed teams advancing to the round of 16 when it becomes a knockout competition.

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