Oliver Bierhoff cannot wait to see Germany & the Netherlands resume their rivalry at Euro 2012

2 Dec 2011 21:18:00

More On :  Germany, Netherlands
Oliver Bierhoff, Germany
Bongarts

 By Wayne Veysey in Kiev

Oliver Bierhoff is confident that Germany can progress from the toughest Euro 2012 group with a team that is more "grown up" than the side that reached the semi-finals of last year's World Cup.

However the architect of Germany's re-emergence as a super-power admitted his side cannot be considered a "big" team unless they win a major tournament.

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Asked about being pitted against Holland, Portugal and Denmark next summer, the Germany general manager told Goal.com: "We know these are very good teams with technical front players. We have a very tough group, perhaps the toughest group in the tournament. It won’t be easy but we are in the final round of the European Championship.

"But we will be well prepared and have the quality to beat all the teams. It could be the worse group on paper, especially also with the rivalry that we have with Holland. But it will be fun. We know that we need the right preparation and to be focused."

Bierhoff is not getting carried away by the team's tag as one of the competition's most fancied teams but believes Germany have improved since last year's World Cup, when they were knocked out in the semi-finals.

He said: "We are more experienced and more grown up. We have the choices of two or three other new players like Toni Kroos. So I think we grew during the qualification. You could see that. But you still have to win a tournament to be a big team.

"Everybody has been speaking about favourites but you know the history of tournaments. You never expected Greece to win the tournament [in 2004] or in 1996 the Czech Republic would reach the final or in '92 that Denmark would win. Every time it is difficult and it depends also on the availability and fitness of the players.

"It helps that our young players get experience in the Champions League at the big clubs. You can see that especially with Mesut Ozil or with Sami Khedira. When they are together with the best players in the world they become better too and also so does the performance of the team."

Bierhoff is a big admirer of Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo, widely considered to be the outstanding player at next summer's tournament.

"Every time it is hard and difficult to play against him," he said. "We did very well in 2008. We will have to see how we do it now.

"The best thing would be not to let him get the ball so he doesn’t have the space or the time to make all those tricks. For this, we have time now.

"It is difficult to say he's the best in the world. Lionel Messi is also playing well. Both players have been playing for a long time at an incredible level. For sure, he is one of the best."

Bierhoff has also been struck by the improvement of Arsenal's Robin van Persie over the last 12 months.

"I have been very impressed by Robin van Persie. He is an excellent player for Arsenal and we have to pay attention to him."

Germany start their tournament with against Portugal in June 9, before meeting Holland four days later and finally Denmark.

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EURO 2012 Live Update

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21:50 BST -  And here are some quotes from today's goalscorer, Danny Welbeck: "It's still the same, me and Ashley [Young] playing together.

"We know each other's games and obviously we're training with each other day in and day out.

"So, it was really good to start up top with him."

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