Post by El Morto La Hoja! on Jun 24, 2008 13:26:00 GMT -1
Michael Ballack is reporting an air of quiet confidence and calm in the Germany camp ahead of their Euro 2008 semi-final against Turkey.
Germany came into the competition as one of the big favourites but after starting with an impressive 2-0 win over Poland they were brought crashing down to earth in their second match by Croatia - the team Turkey beat in the quarter-finals.
That 2-1 loss to Slaven Bilic's men left Germany needing a result in their final group match against Austria to go through, and for Ballack the defeat also gave his side a huge wake-up call.
Since then there have been no more slip-ups, with Joachim Low's men easing past Austria 1-0 and then recording a fine 3-2 victory over the highly-fancied Portuguese in the quarter-final.
Looking back Ballack admits that while the performances in the games against Croatia and Portugal were contrasting, he believes they both served to make Germany a better team heading into Wednesday's meeting with the Turks at St Jakob Park in Basel.
"Portugal were treated as the big favourites. When you knock this team out of the tournament in such a way, then that give us immense self-belief. That was exactly the game the we needed at this stage of the tournament," said Ballack.
"The hardest phase of the tournament has been weathered. I sense lots of positives, but also a certain calmness.
"I have the feeling that we will not play another game like we did against Croatia."
The Chelsea midfielder insists the team's self-belief did not disappear following the loss to Croatia in Klagenfurt, but admits the result brought certain things into focus.
"Our self confidence was always there and we have not let ourselves be distracted by the external criticism. But you can't always say: everything is fine, everything is great," he added.
"If too much harmony dominates, than aggression can get lost. You need a certain amount of inner aggression, a bit of anger about you and the others in order to give your maximum," he said in an interview on the German FA website.
"We Germans also need doggedness in order to carry through our game. If you see the Portuguese, they are in part better set up than us because of their individual players. But we as a team set closeness, unconditional will, single-mindedness against them.
"The success vindicated us. Against Croatia we had lost this aggression - lucky at a time when we could still react."
Germany coach Low looks set to have a full-strength squad to choose from with Torsten Frings seemingly recovered from a rib injury.
--------------------------------------------
Germans? Confident? .... no theres a shocker
