Bernd Leno is aiming to impress with Germany and stake his claim for a spot in the squad should they make it to Euro 2016.
The Bayer Leverkusen goalkeeper, called up for the first time for the current round of international fixtures, watched from the bench as Joachim Low s men were beaten 1-0 by Republic of Ireland last Thursday.
He hopes that by working hard in training he can garner favour with the coaching staff and be considered for a spot in the squad at the finals in France next year, with Germany needing a point at home to Georgia on Sunday to seal their place.
We ll have to wait and see. My task here is to make the best possible impression of myself here and to put in some convincing performances during training, Leno told the DFB s official website.
Then I have to keep playing consistently for my club. It d be a dream to be there in France. I will do everything I can to make that dream a reality.
And while Leno believes they will be in for a tough match against Georgia, he feels the squad s quality will see them through.
I don t expect it to be an easy game for us. They will defend deep and try to close down the spaces, he added.
But it s obvious that we have more quality in our squad, and if we manage to play our game we shouldn t run into any problems.
I m 100 percent certain that we will qualify.
Linking up with the national team has enabled Leno to train alongside Manuel Neuer and Marc-Andre ter Stegen.
The 23-year-old took the chance to deny suggestions of a difficult relationship with the Barcelona keeper while also speaking of his admiration for the Bayern Munich stopper.
I felt that we got along great – both from a sporting point of view as well as on a personal level, Leno explained.
The group with Manu and Marc is a lot of fun to train with – there s always a lot of talk around the relationship between Marc and myself, but it s simply not true that we have any quarrels.
I think that [goalkeeping coach] Andy [Andreas] Kopke has also noticed in training that everything is fine between Marc and me.
Manu is a very pleasant guy – very calm and totally relaxed, but at the same time you notice that he is fully focussed in training. He is the world s best keeper and I tried to learn some things from him.
He s earned himself that status. Obviously among athletes there is a sense of competition, but at the same time you have to accept that Manu is currently completely untouchable in his position.
He never panics on the ball. His composure is truly remarkable.
