Northern Ireland vs Germany: ‘I love the Will Grigg song. I will try and swap shirts with him,’ says Mats Hummels

MATS HUMMELS has told Germany they must turn up against Northern Ireland unlike boss Joachim Low.

Low ducked his pre-match press obligations claiming a sore throat and that he needed to focus fully on the game on Tuesday which could be tricky for the world champions.

The Germans even tried to get Michael O’Neill to delay his press conference on Monday night but were given short shrift as the minnows flexed their muscles.

Defender Hummels says he has fallen in love with the romance of Northern Ireland’s journey to Euro 2016 particularly the ‘Will Grigg’s On Fire’ anthem and the fact striker Conor Washington was a postie just four years ago.

The Borussia Dortmund star, 27, said: “I’ve heard the Will Grigg song and about the fans who rang the firefighters — I love this.

“I will try to swap shirts with him if I can. I also love the story about Washington.

“When you have played against players a couple of times you know their tricks but not with Northern Ireland.

“But they won’t be strangers to us. We’ll analyse videos of their strikers. I’m convinced we will have more chances than against Poland. If we win 1-0 and Poland win 3-0 we will be second and we want to win the group.

“It’s not a big surprise we didn’t know much about Northern Ireland. I haven’t played them.

“Of course the British teams are similar in that style of play, we played Scotland and Ireland in qualifiers.

“We know it’s a possibility they can gain the confidence to beat us if we let them.

“We try to be the best team from the first minute so they do not start believing in themselves that they can win.”