Low confident of EURO triumph

Germany coach Joachim Low has said that he is "confident" his side will be crowned European champions this summer. Lowe's team will be regarded as one of the favourites in Poland and Ukraine after coming through their qualifying group with a perfect record. And after finishing third and second in the last two major tournaments, Low feels the time is right to win the trophy. "Yes, I am confident," he said in an interview with Germany's Stern magazine. Regardless of whether Germany do indeed triumph at UEFA EURO 2012, Low feels he has a side which has won many new fans, both at home and abroad. "We are a team which has certain values and that is why people can identify with us, and that makes me very proud," he said. Those values are "discipline, ambition, passion and pleasure in our game" which Low says make his team "look like we are performing the easiest exercise in the world". "Those should be the trademarks of our game - that is important to me," he said. For all that to succeed, Low is to work on his side's flexibility by trialling a new system in the build-up to the summer. "We no longer want to just oppress our opponent's game, we want to dictate the way they play," he said. "That means we need to attack them in their own half when we lose possession there and not always retreat. Keeping our opponents away from our goal is something we can improve on and that is what we should be focusing on in our preparations." The first test comes next week when Germany host France in an international friendly in Bremen. Low has named a 22-man squad for Wednesday's game with no surprises in his selection. Bastian Schweinsteiger, Mario Gotze, Lukas Podolski and Per Mertesacker have all been left out due to injury Germany squad: Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich), Tim Wiese (Werder Bremen); Dennis Aogo (Hamburg), Holger Badstuber, Jerome Boateng, Philipp Lahm (all Bayern Munich), Mats Hummels, Marcel Schmelzer (both Borussia Dortmund), Benedikt Howedes (Schalke), Christian Trasch (Wolfsburg); Lars Bender, Simon Rolfes, Andre Schurrle (all Bayer Leverkusen), Sven Bender (Borussia Dortmund), Sami Khedira, Mesut Ozil (both Real Madrid), Toni Kroos, Thomas Muller (both Bayern Munich), Marco Reus (Borussia Monchengladbach); Cacau (Stuttgart), Mario Gomez (Bayern Munich), Miroslav Klose (Lazio)