Germany face their third hurdle in the race to qualify for Rugby World Cup 2019 when they host Belgium in Offenbach on Saturday, but captain Sean Armstrong says his side are taking nothing for granted.

After an opening victory over Romania ignited Germany's Rugby Europe Championship campaign, Kobus Potgieter's side slipped to a heavy away defeat to Georgia, but return to home soil with the tag of favourites.

That level of expectation brings an added pressure for the hosts against a Belgian outfit searching for their first win and Armstrong insists the players are only focused on their own performance and not any external factors. 

The Australian-born back points to Germany's defeat of ever-present Rugby World Cup participants Romania as an example of how results can regularly defy pre-match odds in this competition. 

"Against Romania there wasn't much pressure on us but at the same time we have a belief that we belong at this level and we can put these teams under pressure and turn results our way," Armstrong said at Friday's pre-match press conference.

Focus solely on Belgium

"Against Georgia we let ourselves down, it was a poor performance regardless of what Georgia did. They're a strong team but we let ourselves down and it's something we're not proud of.

"We know that whether you class us or underdogs or favourites, that doesn't mean anything to us. We're simply focused on the job in hand and that's simply to bring an improved performance and we believe we have done enough in training and in the analysis to do that."

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A crowd of close to 5,000 is expected at the Sparda-Bank-Hessen-Stadion on Saturday (kick-off 16:15 GMT) as Germany's quest to reach their first Rugby World Cup gathers momentum in the presence of the iconic Webb Ellis Cup.

Yet Saturday's result is far from a foregone conclusion as a young Belgium team arrive in Offenbach determined to upset the odds and record a significant result in their history. 

"This will be our third game in a row and we're growing in confidence and learning all the time," said Black Devils captain Julien Berger. "We are very young but taking learnings all the time from the experiences and results."

Germany coach Potgieter is also fully aware of the threat Belgium will pose to his team having previously coached the U19 national team against this weekend's opponents. 

Eighty-minute battle

"We expect a battle for 80 minutes," he admitted. "I've coached the national team twice before against Belgium and I know they will not make it easy for us. We need to play rugby tomorrow and not just pitch up here and expect a result. 

"We need to be on our game tomorrow and execute our basic work 100 per cent otherwise we're going to find ourselves in big trouble and we know that. If you've never played against Belgium you don't know how tough it can be, so we're lucky we have that experience."

With a place in Japan on the line for the best-ranked team across the 2017 and 2018 Rugby Europe Championship, the stakes couldn’t be higher even at this early stage of proceedings.

While Armstrong and the German players are conscious of the ultimate goal, this game is another step on the road and their primary focus remains on negotiating this next challenge. 

“If we start to let ourselves down and don't get the results, we're letting our country down and the sport down in this country,” Armstrong added. 

“It’s up to the coaches and management to keep us grounded and believe me we've worked hard this week. It's all about the basics and going back to the drawing board come kick-off on Saturday."

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