Italy a completely different threat – Bierhoff

Italy will pose a completely different threat to Germany than England, team manager Oliver Bierhoff believes.

Germany took a two-goal lead when entertaining England at the Olympiastadion in Berlin on Saturday, but the visitors rallied to complete a 3-2 win with three goals in the space of 30 minutes.

Bierhoff expects the world champions to face another difficult task when their Euro 2016 preparations continue against Italy at the Allianz Arena on Tuesday.

“[It will be] a match [that is] as difficult as the first one, but Italy play completely different,” he said.

“While England managed to counter-attack very fast, Italy will play very well-organised and tactically disciplined.

“You already could see this in their last friendlies [draws against Romania and Spain]. Their style is based on a good organisation and the well-developed Italian tactics.

“We hope that we can create some chances and at the same time not give many.”

Germany must take the positives from their defeat to England and seek improvement in Munich, according to Bierhoff.

“As the German national team we always have the pressure and aspiration to win a home match, and of course you also want to win against England or Italy,” he continued.

“I think we should try to focus on the positive aspects. You could see that there is still a lot to do and that there are many teams which might seem to be weaker on paper, but can cause trouble by playing well as a team.

“[England did] not surprise [us] because we expected them to play as they did. You can see that they are looking forward to those matches.

“After long years where they had difficulties now they have a young team similar to World Cup 2010, lots of players that like to show themselves in internationals. They already proved it in the qualifiers, so we were not surprised.”