Germany coach Joachim Löw and his Spain counterpart Luis Aragonés are both hoping UEFA EURO 2008™ will come to a suitably exciting conclusion as their sides prepare to meet in the final on Sunday evening.
'Intensive match'
The first 30 games of the tournament have yielded 76 goals, and the coaches are optimistic that pattern will continue at the Ernst-Happel-Stadion. Germany's Joachim Löw – whose side won 3-2 in both the quarter- and semi-finals against Portugal and Turkey respectively and are looking for their fourth European title – is anticipating an open encounter. "It's going to be a very intensive match," he said. "Both Spain and Germany have good players and like to go forward so it's going to be very interesting. We tried to make certain corrections after we lost to Croatia [in the group stage], but when we're against a team who play attacking football we can reach that level and keep up. Technically speaking, both teams have strong offensive players. It will be a fast, flexible and variable match."
German hopes would be damaged by the absence of Michael Ballack, who has missed training for the last two days due to a calf problem, while Thorsten Frings should replace Simon Rolfes in midfield. Despite the doubts surrounding the participation of his captain, Löw is in bullish mood, confidently proclaiming: "I expect to win, of course. We have a long, hard road behind us over the past few weeks. This tournament was tough for all players and all teams, it took up a lot of strength but now we're in the final and we're going to gather all our efforts to win and take the cup back to Germany."
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