There are less than 24 hours to go until the first of four matches that will kick off the quarter-finals of Euro 2024: tomorrow at 18:00 Germany will face Spain for access to the semi-finals. The German coach, Julian Nagelsmann, spoke at a press conference, as reported by Bild, starting with a joke about Yamal: “My focus is less on Yamal and more on Jamal (Musiala, ed.). There are many good approaches to defend against those who have a lot of possession, but we also want to have the ball ourselves: it is always more enjoyable and that is also the idea for tomorrow. We will not be able to do it for 90 minutes perhaps, there will be moments in which we want to attack and make life difficult for them, others in which we want to defend”.
The words of made the news Peter on the pinches of Rudiger: “Antonio is a real defender. I don’t know if he ever pinched Pedri. They should sort it out after the game.” Regarding the prospect of penalties, the coach has clear ideas: “We have a list in our heads. It’s important that the players think about the pitch, though. You can also decide a match before the penalty shootout, then obviously we have a method to reliably evaluate how players have taken penalties at club level. We have many more players suited to doing so than those who have too few.”
The technician is asked again to Yamal: “He’s a really great talent. He’s shown it very consistently this year. There aren’t many who have been that consistent over a year at Barcelona. Gundogan is the best person to talk to about how things are going at the club. He’s only 16, which means our players have a great chance of keeping him under control. We’ll see how he reacts when things get tough.”
Closing on the choice between Healthy or Wirtz: “I could answer that question, but I don’t want to. We still have some question marks. You always try to think of everything before a game like this, but if you can choose between Leroy and Flo, then that’s always a good thing.”