• 'I think they've played a very good tournament,' says Ozil
• German coach says that England are 'tragically unlucky'
Mesut Ozil refused to be drawn on whether England's Euro 2012 defeat to Italy simply spared them another thrashing by his Germany side.
England crashed out on penalties on Sunday night, denying them a chance to try to avenge their 4-1 hammering by Germany in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. But the manner of England and Germany's performances in Poland and Ukraine have led some to suggest that the former were at risk of another hiding had they managed to progress.
Asked if he believed that and if he also felt Germany were a better team than two years ago, Ozil said: "Yes, we have improved. We're on a very good track. We've reached the semi-final, with just a few inches to go until the big final.
"As far as England are concerned, I think they've played a very good tournament. They were slightly inferior against Italy and I think that was visible during the game. But they, too, as a team definitely have improved and have developed further."
Sunday's defeat was England's sixth in seven shootouts, as their hoodoo continued with decisive misses from Ashley Young and Ashley Cole. The Germany goalkeeping coach, Andrea Köpke, who was his country's hero in Euro 1996 when he saved Gareth Southgate's weak sudden-death penalty, was at a loss as to why England were still so bad at penalties.
He said: "It was all in their own hands. They were up one penalty and hitting the crossbar was just unlucky. Cole had a stinker when he took that penalty. England are tragically unlucky in many respects but why that is, I don't know."
A big deal has been made out of the importance of practising penalties, with many believing that to be behind Germany's historic shootout success. But Köpke said: "It's near impossible to practise penalty shootouts in training. In training, players just whack it in and they do different things when it really counts. It makes precious little sense to practise penalties during training." Read More
انسخ الكود التالى و ضعه فى موقعك او مدونتك.
