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World Cup 2010: England defender Jamie Carragher does not fear Germany
Liverpool man not worried potential second round opponents...
By Matt Monaghan
Joachim Low's side were in imperious form at the weekend as they destroyed Australia 4-0, while the Three Lions fumbled their way to a 1-1 draw with the USA. If one nation finishes top and the other second in their qualifying group, they will meet in a do-or-die last 16 clash.
Speaking to reporters today, the Liverpool defender insisted Fabio Capello's men are not worried by Germany's impressive performance.
"Myself, Steven Gerrard, David James and some of the staff watched the Germany game and they were very impressive," Carragher said.
"It is the best performance we have seen at the World Cup although Argentina played well without getting the goals.
"Ozil behind the striker was very good, linking the whole team together.
"Klose seems to get a lot of criticism in Germany, being on the bench for Bayern Munich, but he is close to Gerd Muller's goal record now.
"It was typical Germany. Maybe some times on paper you don't expect too much but, whatever tournament comes around, they always do well."
Carragher might be perfectly correct not to fear England's familiar foe. According to Castrol Football's extensive analysis of every World Cup of the modern era, should the two countries face each other again in this World Cup, the Three Lions would have a 42 per cent chance of emerging victorious, with only a 31 per cent chance of losing inside 90 minutes.
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"But, we came through. Obviously there were a lot of changes so it's good to get the result.
"Belgium are a very, very strong side who are going to be really good in the future. Vincent [Kompany] told me about them and said that they were coming good and I totally agree with him."
"[Gary] Cahill I suppose is slightly more of a concern for me because it is a jaw injury. We're desperately hoping the CT scan doesn't show any fracture and it's just going to be a bruising situation, which will be bad enough, but won't stop him taking part in the tournament. As far as John's [Terry] concerned he felt his hamstring a little bit. Again it wasn't a major thing when he came off but we still need to scan it just to be 100 per cent sure."
Suffice to say, if Cahill has broken his jaw, he won't play any part in the tournament.
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