Michael Ballack must have been wondering how many more chances at a final he is going to get as he walked through the Spanish guard of honour after the full time whistle on Sunday. The 31-year-old Chelsea midfielder has now been on the losing side of a final tree times in the last year. [...]

Germany 3 Turkey 2
With only four minutes remaining in the match, Turkey looked to have come back from the dead yet again with an equaliser from Semih Senturk. Unfortunately for them though they didn’t manage to see the game into extra time. A Philip Lahm goal in the final minute of the match restored Germany’s [...]

Torsten Frings could play against Turkey tomorrow night despite not fully recovering from a bruised rib sustained in the final group match against Austria last week. After a good team performance in their previous match against Portugal, it would be brave of Löw to drop either Simon Rolfes or Thomas Hitzlsperger, who both performed well [...]

Influential midfielder Torsten Frings and top scorer Lukas Podolski have been rated as doubts to play against Portugal in Basle tomorrow night. Frings, who plays his football for Werder Bremen, has a fractured rib and Bayern Munich striker Podolski has a calf problem, both were picked up during the second half against Austria. This is [...]

Joachim Löw has been handed a one match touchline ban by Uefa and may have already managed his last match in charge of the German national side. Although he will officially be in charge of their quarter-final tie against Portugal, Löw will not be allowed any contact with his players once they reach the stadium [...]

German coach Joachim Löw expressed his pleasure at the teamwork shown by his side but admitted they would need to raise their game if they are to progress any further in this tournament. “We really played as a team tonight, I think that was one of the positives of the game against Austria. But we [...]

Bastian Schweinsteiger will miss tonight’s clash against co-hosts Austria through suspension after a push on Croatia’s Jarko Leko. The tie will decide who will qualify behind Croatia in second place and go on to play an impressive looking Portugal in the quarter-final.
Two of the injured trio have recovered from knocks picked up in the previous [...]

Goalkeepers: Jens Lehmann (Arsenal/ENG), Robert Enke (Hanover 96), Rene Adler (Bayer Leverkusen)
Defenders: Christoph Metzelder (Real Madrid/ESP), Per Mertesacker (Werder Bremen), Philipp Lahm (Bayern Munich), Arne Friedrich (Hertha Berlin), Marcell Jansen (Bayern Munich), Clemens Fritz (Werder Bremen), Heiko Westermann (Schalke 04)
Midfield: Michael Ballack (Chelsea/ENG), Thomas Hitzlsperger (VfB Stuttgart), Simon Rolfes (Bayer Leverkusen), Torsten Frings [...]

Germany will be going into Euro 2008 as favourites, having been the first side to qualify and providing displays that send clear warnings to their opponents that they are the real deal and are have more than a good chance of returning home after the tournament as European Champions. They have a formidable squad studded [...]