Hummels eager for early opener

Germany centre-back Mats Hummels is hoping his side can grab an early goal in their Euro 2012 quarter-final against Greece.

Joachim Loew’s side were the only team to finish the Euro 2012 group stage with a perfect record, finishing top of Group B with three wins from three games, and now face Greece in the quarter-finals on Friday.

Hummels said his team were fully focused heading into the match.

“We don’t want to go out at the quarter-finals, especially not after such a strong showing in the group stages, so we are going into the game extremely motivated and ready,” he told dfb.de.

“We don’t want to make it an exciting and close game. We want to take the lead early.”

Hummels believes Fernando Santos’ side will defend deep and invite pressure, and that Germany cannot afford to be profligate in front of goal.

“That is at least how I expect them to play but we will see,” he said. “I would be surprised if they are the more active of the two sides.

“It depends on how you approach teams like this. We’re naturally going to have more of the possession and it is important to be clinical with the few chances we will create against a team that sits so deep.

“The difficult thing will be not to be caught on the counter-attack and we have to be careful on set-pieces as well.”

Though Loew’s side successfully navigated the ‘Group of Death’, Hummels believes there is still room for improvement.

“Results wise we are doing well but there are still things we can improve on from an individual perspective which we are hoping to see in our game against Greece,” the Borussia Dortmund defender said.