Joachim Low was proud of the way his German side rose to the occasion in beating Portugal in their Classy Germany eliminate Portugal ...
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The suspended coach had to watch the game from the stands, but was delighted with the way his side responded.

"We had a lot of courage, had good combinations, moved well without the ball - all the things that we've done well in the past we did," he said.

"Sitting behind the window in the stands was really difficult. It is too far from the action."

The 48-year-old Low gambled by making three changes to his midfield, but it paid off with Bastian Schweinsteiger scoring once and setting up the other two goals in the 3-2 win.

Low added: "After the Austria match we saw we had to make some changes. We wanted to close down the space in Portugal's midfield. We succeeded in doing that."

In Low's absence assistant coach Hansi Flick took charge on the touchline.

Low added: "He did a great job. There were some things during the match he did absolutely right, like putting Michael Ballack a bit further back when there was a phase where they put us under some pressure."

Schweinsteiger said he was pleased to make up for his group stage sending off by inspiring Germany in Basel.

"I made a mistake, I knew it. I set out to help the team as much as possible and it worked," he said.

"We still have something left. We must do it again in the next match. I'm very happy to have won the game. We eliminated the best team of the tournament in my eyes."

Germany skipper Ballack felt they were good value for the win, adding: "We started very well.

"We changed the system a bit with five in midfield and one striker less, we were very compact.

"Especially in the first half I thought we played fantastically against a very strong Portugal team until now. I think we deserved it."

(BBC)

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