World champions Germany have progressed to the quarter final of EURO 2016, with a 3-0 win over Slovakia. National coach Joachim Löw was consequently very pleased with his team after the match. DFB.de have heard some important voices talking about the match, including Löw, Draxler and Grindel.
Joachim Löw: If you take the entire game into account, we were very, very good. We had total control over the match and filled the gaps well. It was a very comprehensive victory. Normally, Jerome Boateng is only put on the edge of the box for protection, but he took the ball brilliantly. A great start for us. Julian Draxler was very good in the first matches. I encouraged him to play with courage and to play in the space. He set up the second goal and scored the third. That was a result of his hard work in training.
It makes you feel really good, when the defence play so well. We never allowed the Slovakians into the game. The whole team worked very well defensively, even Gomez, Özil and Draxler up front.
Now we are up against a different calibre of opposition, in either Spain or Italy. We will see how training goes and then see who will play. The Spaniards are slight favourites tomorrow, but Italy are also very skilled. Italy have started the tournament very strongly and will put up fierce resistance to Spain. The outcome is very hard to predict. We will definitely be practising penalties this week. The week will be planned around our analysis of the opposition and we will keep working on the same things, on our defensive setup, and also on attacking play, focussing on forward runs in particular.
DFB President Reinhard Grindel: It was our best performance of the tournament, we had a lot of possession and have finally been rewarded with some goals. There is nothing to complain about today. Also, compliments to Joachim Löw. I believe the decision to play Julian Draxler was a good one. He has trained well and created a lot going forward. Now it really gets going. Now we are going up against a team who are joint favourites.
Jan Kozak (Slovakia coach): The Germans are a tournament team. They know when to turn up the heat. We have to compliment them. They played excellently, and scored an early goal. We tried and failed to cause them any problems. If we had scored the equaliser, then it would have been a very different game. But the Germans were in full flow. Nevertheless, it was an outstanding tournament for us, and we got through four matches.
Manuel Neuer: We took our chances in front of goal and took the lead very early on. The second goal just before the break was very important. We could have also bagged one or two more goals, but I am still very pleased with how it went. Many of the teams here can create something out of very little. Luckily, I managed to save the shot before we went 2-0 up. We have done exactly what was asked of us. Of course, now comes the real challenge. We will see shortly whether we will play Spain or Italy. It doesn’t matter who we play against – it is always tough playing against Germany.
Jérôme Boateng: I saw that the ball was coming towards me, and I hit it well. I have been asked a lot, when I was going to score my first international goal. I have always said that I was saving it for this tournament. Over the last few days, the physiotherapists and the doctors have worked extremely hard, and without them I would not have been able to play today. I am very grateful for that.
World champions Germany have progressed to the quarter final of EURO 2016, with a 3-0 win over Slovakia. National coach Joachim Löw was consequently very pleased with his team after the match. DFB.de have heard some important voices talking about the match, including Löw, Draxler and Grindel.
Joachim Löw: If you take the entire game into account, we were very, very good. We had total control over the match and filled the gaps well. It was a very comprehensive victory. Normally, Jerome Boateng is only put on the edge of the box for protection, but he took the ball brilliantly. A great start for us. Julian Draxler was very good in the first matches. I encouraged him to play with courage and to play in the space. He set up the second goal and scored the third. That was a result of his hard work in training.
It makes you feel really good, when the defence play so well. We never allowed the Slovakians into the game. The whole team worked very well defensively, even Gomez, Özil and Draxler up front.
Now we are up against a different calibre of opposition, in either Spain or Italy. We will see how training goes and then see who will play. The Spaniards are slight favourites tomorrow, but Italy are also very skilled. Italy have started the tournament very strongly and will put up fierce resistance to Spain. The outcome is very hard to predict. We will definitely be practising penalties this week. The week will be planned around our analysis of the opposition and we will keep working on the same things, on our defensive setup, and also on attacking play, focussing on forward runs in particular.
DFB President Reinhard Grindel: It was our best performance of the tournament, we had a lot of possession and have finally been rewarded with some goals. There is nothing to complain about today. Also, compliments to Joachim Löw. I believe the decision to play Julian Draxler was a good one. He has trained well and created a lot going forward. Now it really gets going. Now we are going up against a team who are joint favourites.
Jan Kozak (Slovakia coach): The Germans are a tournament team. They know when to turn up the heat. We have to compliment them. They played excellently, and scored an early goal. We tried and failed to cause them any problems. If we had scored the equaliser, then it would have been a very different game. But the Germans were in full flow. Nevertheless, it was an outstanding tournament for us, and we got through four matches.
Manuel Neuer: We took our chances in front of goal and took the lead very early on. The second goal just before the break was very important. We could have also bagged one or two more goals, but I am still very pleased with how it went. Many of the teams here can create something out of very little. Luckily, I managed to save the shot before we went 2-0 up. We have done exactly what was asked of us. Of course, now comes the real challenge. We will see shortly whether we will play Spain or Italy. It doesn’t matter who we play against – it is always tough playing against Germany.
Jérôme Boateng: I saw that the ball was coming towards me, and I hit it well. I have been asked a lot, when I was going to score my first international goal. I have always said that I was saving it for this tournament. Over the last few days, the physiotherapists and the doctors have worked extremely hard, and without them I would not have been able to play today. I am very grateful for that.
Mario Gómez: It is never easy, and especially at this tournament, because every team is playing extremely defensively against us. The effectiveness that we display up front is incredible. We need to be scoring more goals, even today. But all in all we can be very happy with the match. I want to enjoy this moment and I am glad that the manager and the team have faith in me. It is not easy in a game like this, because you have to find space where there isn’t any, but we managed that very well today. It is a lot of fun. We look forward to the matches that are coming up. That is why we came to the EUROs. Our target is definitely to win the tournament.
Julian Draxler: Overall it was a great day for me and the team. I am happy that I made a big contribution. I am thankful that the manager had faith in me, and I think I paid him back. Italy and Spain are huge footballing nations, and we are excited to find out who we will face. It will definitely be a highlight.
Oliver Bierhoff (general manager): We didn’t show any weaknesses today, we used the space well and we scored goals. It has worked well with our substitutions so far and that is very important at a tournament like this. Good defensive work is obviously very important. We have improved game by game and have become more efficient. Spain or Italy will be an exciting test.
