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Schweinsteiger demands ahead of key qualifiers

Captain Bastian Schweinsteiger says Germany must improve ahead of key matches against Poland, Ireland and Scotland as they bid to qualify for Euro 2016 as Group D winners. First-half goals by Marco Reus and Thomas Mueller sealed a 2-0 win in Georgia on Sunday which kept Germany in the hunt for automatic qualification for the finals in France after a shock defeat to Poland and a home draw with Ireland last October. Scotland's 6-1 drubbing of bottom side Gibraltar in Glasgow left the Scots, Poland and Germany level on 10 points in the table ahead of Sunday night's qualifier in Dublin between Ireland and Poland. The win sets up Germany ahead of their next qualifier away to minnows Gibraltar in June before their showdown at home to Poland, then games away to Scotland and Ireland in September and October. But Schweinsteiger, who made his debut as Germany captain on his first appearance since the World Cup final, said there is plenty of room for improvement if they want to win their group. "It is always hard against a team which defends so deep and we made one or two mistakes too many, but the bottom line is a 2-0 win is okay. We needed the points," said the Bayern Munich star. "We need to keep improving and we have plenty of time until our next qualifiers." After failing to impress in their seven previous internationals since winning the World Cup in Brazil last year, this was a far more polished display from Germany, but there were frustrations with the goalless second half. "I have mixed feelings, to be honest, we did well in the first half and scored some nice goals, but it was frustrating not to score after the break," said Mueller, Germany's top scorer in qualifying with five goals. - Wasted chances - Having experimented with a 3-1-4-2 formation in Wednesday's 2-2 friendly draw at home to Australia, Germany coach Joachim Loew reverted to a 4-2-3-1 line-up and started with seven of the side which won the World Cup final against Argentina. "Before the game, you couldn't miss the gravity of the situation from looking at the table. We knew we had to win here," said Loew. "I am happy with the first-half performance, there were some good combinations with well-taken goals. "But we lost control of the game after the break and we wasted one or two chances." Georgia suffered an early set back when experienced centre-back Aleksandre Amisulashvili was forced off injured to be replaced by uncapped teenager Lasha Dvali with just four minutes gone. Georgia are second from bottom of Group D after also losing to Poland, Ireland and Scotland. But their new coach Kakhaber Tskhadadze said he needs to boost his side's confidence as they face Poland, Scotland and Ireland again in a tough run of forthcoming qualifiers. "Our main problem is keeping the ball when we had won it," said Tskhadadze. "Our players have plenty of potential, but we have to get it out of them and the players have to believe in themselves. "We played positively in the second half, but we have to work on our confidence."