Bierhoff pleased with Germany progress

German team manager Oliver Bierhoff was happy with his side’s final preparations for Euro 2012 after a 2-0 win over Israel on Thursday.

Mindful of sides that may set up with a similar defensive approach at the tournament, a full-strength Germany showed patience to break through with goals from Mario Gomez and Andre Schurrle.

“I thought that the second half was good, we held the pace high, had good plays and found better ways to attack,” Bierhoff said.

“For example the second goal by Andre Schrrle, I thought Thomas Muller did wonderfully there. We showed at the end how to get through a solid defence like that.

“The Isrealis didn’t make it easy for us, they positioned themselves deep in their own half and we know that at the Euros you may have to play against a team which plays like that.”

Bierhoff could not resist taking a shot at Chelsea after their Champions League triumph over Bayern Munich.

“It was good preparation, maybe the school of Chelsea becomes more popular because of their success,” the ex-German international said, referring to the west London side’s defence-minded approach.

“So we have to expect that many teams will play defensively-minded against us.”

Attacking midfielder Toni Kroos, almost a certainty to line up against Germany’s first Group B opponents, Portugal, was pleased with the amount of chances his side created.

“In the second half we should have scored a few more goals, which also means that we created a lot of good chances,” Kroos said.

“We have to work on that. We have to use the chances and when we do that, I think we are in with a really good chance of winning.”