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What they said: Round-up of the best post-match quotes from Germany vs Poland

Sport360 staff

09:14 17/06/2016

Old rivals Germany and Poland fought a battle of attrition that ended in a goalless draw and edged both countries towards a place in the last 16 of Euro 2016 on Thursday.

The stalemate left Germany on top of Group C on goal difference with both sides on four points from two matches.

Here’s the best of the post-match interviews from the clash in Paris:

Germany coach Joachim Loew

“The results are very close because for the teams that participate for the first time it is the tournament of their lives.

“They do what they are good at, they defend and wait for chances on the counter-attack and that is what we expected before the tournament, that the teams will fight for everything.

“We’ve seen France and England win games in the last minute. I expected to see fights like that because teams defend with 10 men and wait for their chance.

“Always in the group stages it is very difficult to predict who is the big favourite. We have seen that in the last tournaments, teams that are not so strong in the group stage improved later on.

“France are the favourites, the Italians had a great opening game, Spain and ourselves are always sides that can win a tournament.

“From the knockout games on you cannot have a bad day, you cannot allow any mistakes, so it is too early to predict who will get to the final.

“Most of all I am satisfied with the defence. We didn’t concede too many counter-attacks which the Polish are normally strong at.

“They had one big chance after half-time, but apart from that (Manuel) Neuer didn’t have a save to make.

“Mats was magnificent, both centre-backs Mats and Jerome Boateng were very strong.”

Joachim Loew.

Poland coach Adam Nawalka

“We were controlling things, even at the end.

“There were times when Germany took the initiative but we gave it to them consciously, to allow us space to hit them on the counter-attack.

“I’m very happy with the team, in particular their discipline and tactical awareness. It all went exactly to plan. The players put a lot of heart into it.

“The only thing I’m not completely happy about is our failure to score but 0-0 was a fair scoreline. I’m happy the players aren’t fully satisfied. It means they ask a lot of themselves and there’s more to come.

“Lewandowski’s performance is always vital to our game plan. He hasn’t scored, but he’s doing a lot of work.

“He is always thinking about the team and has played a huge role dragging defenders out of place and creating room for team-mates. He is in optimum form.”

Adam Nawalka.

Germany’s Jerome Boateng
“I think like usual it is always hard to play against him (Lewandowski).”

“He occupied us all night, but we defended well as a team, starting with the attack and that made it easier for me.”

Jerome Boateng.

Poland’s Robert Lewandowski
“We’re happy with the point. We showed Germany a bit too much respect in the first half.”

“It’s a pity that we didn’t get the goal, but that’s football and it’s not a bad result for us.”

Robert Lewandowski.

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