Germany look to the future

Beaten Euro 2008 finalists take heart from progress

By Chris Burton   Last updated: 30th June 2008   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Germany look to the future

Metzelder: Staying positive

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Germany's defeated Euro 2008 squad have already turned their attentions to the 2010 World Cup.

Joachim Low's men slipped to a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Spain in the European Championship final on Sunday, a disappointing conclusion to a record-breaking sixth appearance in the tournament's showpiece occasion.

However, having failed to hit top form throughout the competition they can have few complaints about securing a runners-up spot.

Their appearance in the final also comes just two years after their third place finish at the 2006 World Cup and the genral consensus among the current squad is that a relatively inexperienced group can only get better in the future.

"We still have a very young team and I don't think that in this tournament we were able to show the quality that we did in 2006 and qualification," said Real Madrid defender Christoph Metzelder.

"We had to fight very hard to reach this final. I think we have much more quality to show and we have to improve as a team.

"We now have two years to qualify for the World Cup and try to reach the final again."

Learning

Metzelder's defensive partner, Per Mertesacker, agrees with his colleague.

"There are lots of emotions going through my head that you can't describe, for example the fantastic German fans, who were always behind us even after the Croatia defeat," he said.

"We hope that we can improve from these games and learn from them. We are still a young side and a good squad that wants to improve.

"We have reached a point where you can say 'it's not the end'."

Improving

Former Aston Villa midfielder Thomas Hitzlsperger is also of the belief that the squad will be better prepared for a tilt at glory in two years' time.

He said: "We've got things to improve on and I'm sure we will. Then we'll see how it goes in two years' time when we go to South Africa."

Fellow midfielder Torsten Frings added: "We have to improve in almost every part of our team, but that doesn't mean that everything was bad - we reached the final of the European Championship."