Low suspects an agent may be Germany's mole

23/06/2012 8:20:00 PM

The trainer was furious about the premature unveiling of his first XI - a longstanding problem - suggesting that the representative of one of his men is leaking information

Clark Whitney
In Gdansk

Germany may have advanced to the Euro 2012 semi-finals following a comprehensive 4-2 win against Greece on Friday, but not all was rosy in the Mannschaft camp.

Hours before the game, Joachim Low's exact starting line-up was published by German newspaper Bild, and quickly spread through various media and social networking sites. And following the match, the head coach was not amused, claiming a mole within his camp was responsible.

"I cannot explain how the list was leaked. Maybe a player spoke with his agent," Low said to German TV station ARD.

Cristian Nyari
Germany Expert

Low's frustration about the line-up being leaked is certainly understandable, but many were speculating about such changes as early as the group stage. A host of notable pundits and commentators made similar suggestions days before so it was not entirely surprising when it was revealed. That said, Germany pride themselves on the harmony in their training camp which, if these allegations are true, was certainly compromised.

Low made four changes to his previous XI for the Greece match, with Miroslav Klose, Marco Reus, and Andre Schurrle starting in three of the four attacking positions. And Low lamented the fact that his team could not take the Greeks by surprise with their new-look attacking line-up.

"It's not nice when [the line-up] is released, because we want to be unpredictable," he explained.

Speaking to Goal.com at a press conference on Saturday, Andre Schurrle revealed the Bundestrainer's frustration:

"Yes, he definitely raised the issue, and was anything but amused.

"It was very unfortunate that at a very early stage - 2:00, 2:30 - everyone knew what the starting line-up would be.

"I can't imagine anyone in the team doing such a thing," he added.

This is not the first time that the Bundestrainer has had his plans unveiled ahead of schedule. Before Germany's group stage opener against Portugal, German newspaper Express revealed that Mario Gomez would start ahead of Klose in attack.

Additionally, last November, the trainer had a similar problem when Schurrle tweeted that he would miss a friendly against Netherlands due to a bout of flu.

In the end, the Ethniki could not use their information to any great advantage on Friday, and the Nationalelf advanced almost effortlessly to the semi-finals.

However, with every match becoming increasingly difficult, the trainer will be keen to eradicate this issue.