Jens Lehmann has described Spain as a ‘youth team’ at Euro 2024 (Welt)
Former Germany and Arsenal goalkeeper Jens Lehmann believes Spain are ‘too small and inexperienced’ to win Euro 2024.
Spain are the only team to win all of their games at Euro 2024 and have reached the last eight of the competition after a 4-1 win over Georgia in their last-16 tie on Sunday evening.
La Roja will play Germany in their Euro 2024 quarter-final clash this Friday after the tournament hosts sealed a 2-0 win over Denmark in their first game of the knockout stage on Saturday.
But Lehmann, who made 61 appearances for Germany, has major reservations over the lack of physicality in Spain’s squad.
Asked why he believes Germany will beat Spain in the quarter final, Lehmann told Welt: ‘Because it is usually the case in a tournament that a team who are as highly praised as the Spanish and has undoubtedly shown why, their good results suddenly change.
Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams have been two of Spain’s key players (AFP via Getty)
‘This has happened to the Spanish before and from a technical point of view, I would say that in terms of quality they are perhaps even better than us.
‘But they are too small in size and they are very inexperienced, they are basically a youth team.
‘They already have two wingers who are extremely young and have little international experience in the axis starting from the goalkeeper through the central defence to the forwards to Morata.’
Germany beat Denmark to set up a quarter-final tie against Spain this Friday (Shutterstock )
When it was mentioned that Spain have 28-year-old Rodri at the heart of their midfield, Lehmann replied: ‘I’ve mentioned a few technical arguments as to why we can win, you just say that Rodri is 28, when you have teammates who are 16 and 21 years old then, for me, it’s a bit youthful.
‘At some point the team will perform above average, but teams that are too small in terms of height are usually punished.’
Despite his reservations about Spain’s physicality, Lehmann was also unhappy with Kimmich’s suggestion that German had not decided on a system for their clash against Spain.
‘Joshua Kimmich said it in the press conference that he himself doesn’t know yet which system they want to play in. I find that a bit irritating,’ said Lehmann.
‘If the game is on Friday, you should already know on Monday which system you want to play in.’
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