England have been handed a warning ahead of their crunch semi-final clash that Germany “are only beaten when they are already sitting in the team bus heading for the hotel” and can win the EuroHockey Championships.
The rallying call came from Constantin Staib, the Hamburg player who has played a hand in Germany’s progression to the final via two remarkable come-from-behind performances, a late draw against Holland and coming from three goals down to beat France.
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“Too true,” he said of Germany’s mentality of playing to the hooter, no matter the score.
“I’m 100 per cent sure, because we as a team have incredible strength, that we can become European champions here.”
Staib said that the 6-5 win over France, where the Germans were 5-2 down, was one of the worst defensive performances the team had played “in a long time”.
“But we now know exactly what we have to invest in order to be successful in the important games.”
Meanwhile, Christopher Rühr admitted that Germany shouldn’t rely on winning in the dying embers of a game every time.
“The positive things we can certainly take with us towards the semi-finals are that we win the second half 4-0,” Ruhr told hockey.de.
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