Over breakfast at a cafe in Berlin’s Prenzlauer Berg district, three English visitors could be heard discussing the next Premier League season. It felt like a yellow card offence to anyone fully absorbed in this summer’s spectacle, but some things are best let slide. The question: who would be relegated? Ipswich, Southampton and Leicester, came the consensus. Nobody could quibble with the rationale that new arrivals to the division have the odds stacked more firmly against them than ever.
Perhaps they hopped west on the U-Bahn that afternoon to see Austria, hitherto underwhelming on the big stage, leave Olympiastadion breathless with an exhilarating win over the Netherlands that propels them into genuine contention for a return on 14 July. Hopefully they were sitting somewhere comfortable, or downing shots of chacha in appropriate company, the following night when Georgia ripped up the rulebook with a daring, emotional victory against Portugal.
