Despite German injuries, bring on France, says Loew

EVIAN: Despite a mounting injury list, Germany coach Joachim Loew is relishing facing the Euro 2016 hosts in Thursday’s semi-final under the motto – ‘Bring on France’. “It’s great that there’s a game like this. I love playing knock-out games against teams of this calibre,” said Loew in Evian. Loew’s cause for optimism over the Marseille semi-final is not obvious with three key players definitely ruled out, while captain Bastian Schweinsteiger is doubtful with a new knee injury. Germany have defender Mats Hummels suspended while Mario Gomez and Sami Khedira are out with injury. Gomez will miss the rest of the tournament. As Loew acknowledged, France were buoyed by Sunday’s 5-2 hammering of minnows Iceland in their quarter-final. And the hosts can expect near fanatical support in Marseille, the heartland of the nation’s die-hard fans. Nevertheless, Loew shows little concern as Germany rest up after Saturday’s tense quarter-final penalty shootout win over Italy. “I’m not worried about who the favourite is,” said Germany’s head coach. “It would be easy to say that we have a few injuries and France are favourites as they played really well. (AFP)