You can tell just by looking at Joachim Loew's hair that he is a man who prides himself on perfection.
It was a trait that was never more evident than when details of Germany's carefully laid plans for the 2014 World Cup were made public in the aftermath of their triumph over Argentina. Nothing was left to chance as Loew's backroom team displayed military precision in ensuring every care was taken to give him and his players the greatest chance of success from favourite milkshakes to new mobile phones as the Bundestrainer set about controlling everything under his watch.
Since then, Germany have been anything but perfect as the shock midweek defeat at the hands of USA will attest, the third such reverse suffered by Die Mannschaft since that heady night in Rio last July.
The precision that has long been the hallmark of German teams was evident again last night as they helped themselves to a 7-0 win over a Gibraltar side they were expected to put away comfortably. The took their time, though. Loew, critical of his side's finishing in that reverse against the US, could have few complaints as he watched his side huff and puff their way to a 1-0 half-time lead over a Gibraltar side they were expected to put away comfortably.
Andre Schuerrle, the former Chelsea striker, opened the scoring the in the 27th minutes and after the break things ran like clockwork. Shuerrle added a further two to bring up his hat-trick while Max Kruse, the Borussia Moenchengladbach striker scored twice and Karim Bellarabi and Ilkay Gundogan got the others.
Elsewhere in Group D, the Poland striker Robert Lewandowski, who plies his trade in the Bundesliga with Bayern Munich, also struck a hat-trick. His was the second-fastest treble ever in European Championship qualifying coming inside four minutes in a 4-0 home win over Georgia.
Poland were leading 1-0 when Lewandowski added their second in the 89th minute, before he grabbed two more in stoppage time to put Poland three points clear at the top of the group.
Turkey's Arif Erdem scored a hat-trick in three minutes against Northern Ireland in the Euro 2000 qualifying campaign.
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