Loew has no penalties plan for Greece
Germany coach Joachim Loew has made no plans for a possible penalty shoot-out with Greece in the Uefa Euro 2012™ quarterfinals on Friday and hopes that his team wins without such a climactic finale.
Loew said on Thursday that a coach can only decide on the players for a shoot-out after the end of extra time but that he expects Bastian Schweinsteiger to be available even though the Bayern Munich midfielder failed to convert the last spot kick in the Champions League final against Chelsea.
"Schweinsteiger has enough confidence," Loew said in an interview with several private German television networks at the team's base camp in Gdansk.
Loew said he will use several criteria to pick the men if a shoot-out is required after 120 minutes in the Polish port city.
"The coach must decide after 120 minutes ... Who is still on the pitch? Who can do it? Who had good moments in the game?" Loew said.
However, Loew insisted that "we must see that we decide the game before (a shoot-out) ... We have a big chance (of winning) if we show our quality."
Germany will nonetheless underestimate the 2004 champions who Loew named "the masters of survival in Europe."
