Winning World Cup is sole goal for Germany’s Lahm

Germany captain Philipp Lahm has said winning the next World Cup must be his team’s sole aim when they start their Brazil 2014 qualifying campaign against minnows Faroe Islands on Friday. Germany play host in Hanover, but having suffered the disappointment of losing the Euro 2012 semi-final to Italy in June, Bayern Munich’s Lahm says winning the World Cup can be his country’s only goal. “After what has happened in the past, our goal can only be to become world champions in 2014,” said Lahm, who will play at right-back for Germany against Faroe Islands with Dortmund’s Marcel Schmelzer on the left. “We can’t stand here and say we want to reach the quarter-finals. No. We want to win the World Cup.” Lahm admitted he was still bitter about his team’s 2-1 defeat to the Azzurri which ended their bid to lift their first major title since 1996. “We were missing something. This was a really bitter defeat,” he said. “I still believe that we had a great shot at the title.”