Höwedes' sense of timing helps Gemany

Scorer of the dramatic goal that booked Germany's place at these finals, Benedikt Höwedes is swiftly gaining a reputation for timely intervention. His latest rescue act, against Finland on Thursday, put his side on course for a victory that had hitherto seemed highly unlikely, but rather than take the plaudits the centre-back puts it all down to a familiar German trait.

'Efficiency'
"It was simply a matter of efficiency from our side," the 21-year-old told uefa.com after a 2-0 victory that moves his side within a point of the semi-finals. "Against Spain we should have won – we certainly deserved to – but were unable to. Today it was a little bit more equal but this time we were just a little luckier. Football balances itself out eventually." Höwedes is perhaps bending the truth with "a little luckier" because until his goal, highlighted as the pivotal moment by both coaches, Germany were second best. "In the first half we had a few problems, especially with constructing our moves. We were unable to pass as we had expected and had real problems going forward.

Schalke link
"That all changed after the interval and the team really got going, especially with the [half-time] introduction of Patrick Ebert," added the FC Schalke 04 defender. "The coach really found the right words at half-time and changed things to make us quicker, better and instil more movement into our attacking play." It only really came together after Höwedes himself intervened, rising unmarked to apply a powerful header to Mesut Özil's free-kick – a well-practised combination. "I played with Mesut Özil in the youth side at Schalke, we won the U19 Championship together," he explained. "We had a good understanding then and still seem to have it as I think that was apparent on the pitch today."

Winning mentality
The goal, soon added to by Ashkan Dejagah, is not the first timely intervention Höwedes has made in this campaign. It would be France, not Germany, competing in Group B were in not for Höwedes' added-time effort in the UEFA European Under-21 Championship play-off second leg. The manner of that strike – and, perhaps the one against Finland too – seems only to fuel Horst Hrubesch's side's confidence. "Overall it doesn't matter how we won, just that we've won," said Höwedes, clutching his man of the match award. "Now we're closer to the semi-finals and I'm confident we will go through. We want to win every match at this tournament and against England it will be no different. We will continue to stay strong in defence as we have enough quality in attack to create chances at any time, like against Finland. We didn't have that many chances in the end but it was enough."