Germany's FCB men ‘back in the groove’

Germany open their Euro 2012 campaign against Portugal on 9 June, with an intense training schedule filling the time from Monday until the day of the match. Joachim Löw’s men won their final warm-up friendly 2–0 against Israel in Leipzig on Thursday evening, “and it was a good, disciplined final test. We succeeded in getting what we wanted: a following wind with a victory and a decent performance," the coach said.

Löw started the match with seven FCB men in his line-up, and he was full of praise for the Munich contingent. “Right from their first training session, we saw that they'd put the lost Champions League final behind them. The Bayern players are back in the groove," the boss stated.

Lacking a touch of freshness

However, Germany were far from their best against the defensive Israelis. “We gave away possession too often because we lacked concentration at times," said captain Philipp Lahm, “but that was hardly a surprise. Those of us from Bayern have only trained with the team for three days, so you wouldn't expect everything to work out smoothly." The focus was now entirely on the first match at the tournament, the 28-year-old said.

Löw expressed a similar opinion: “We lack a touch of freshness, but the match against Portugal will be played at a completely different pace." The coach has now sent his players home for a couple of days, before the Germany squad departs from Frankfurt on Monday for their tournament base in Gdansk.