Forward Thomas Mueller hailed Germany’s display in the 3-0 friendly win over the Netherlands in Hamburg on Tuesday.
Bayern Munich man Mueller, who scored the opener and was involved in both of his team’s other goals, believes Germany issued a statement of intent with their scintillating performance at the Hamburg Arena.
“If you beat the Netherlands in this way, it sends a message to all other nations,” he said.
“In the first half, the Netherlands radiated a bit of danger, but we clearly dominated the second half. We scored three outstanding goals.”
The win capped a remarkable year in which Germany finished with 10 wins from as many Euro 2012 qualifiers, and won high-profile friendlies against Brazil, Uruguay and the Netherlands.
The only dark spot in Germany’s year was a 2-1 defeat to Australia in March.
Goalkeeper Manuel Neuer echoed Mueller’s sentiments by saying Germany ‘demolished’ their opponents on Tuesday, while Mesut Oezil said the result showed his side belonged ‘among the favourites’ for Euro 2012.
Veteran striker Miroslav Klose was a little more reserved.
“We just look at ourselves. We want to show the football we’re able to play. That was the case today. We had a run. The game was fun and it worked out perfectly,” he said.
“We don’t speak about the (Euro 2012) title. We go to the Euros and of course we want to go as far as possible. We have the team to go far, but we have to improve. We have half a year to do that. We are progressing well and we need to continue to have fun playing football and have a good run – then we can go far.”
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