Germany only have Finland (ranked 17 places below them) to beat for a place in the Euro 2005 final, but defender Sandra Minnert insists they are not already planning for Sunday.
"We take every opponent very seriously," she said. "We won't be treating this as an easy game by any means." And coach Tina Theune-Meyer added that she expected a fight from the Finns: "It will be a tough match, a fast match, they have some very good players on the pitch."
Whatever challenge Finland may present [and remember they stunned Denmark with two early goals to seal their place in the semi-final tomorrow], Germany scored eight goals in the group games without breaking into a trot – and have yet to concede a single goal themselves.
"We are trying to keep that as it is throughout the tournament," said Minnert. "The clean sheets aren't just nice, they are very important.
"It is the best basis to play on –it means we only need to score one goal to win.
"We haven't thought about the final," she insisted, "we're concentrating on the semi-final first and if we win that we will look forward."
Hard to believe, really, Germany are easily capable of beating all eight teams that have been involved here, and to lose to Finland tomorrow would be a disaster, surely?
"Obviously we want to win," says Minnert. "We are hoping to get to the final, that has always been our aim, but no, if it doesn't happen, disaster is the wrong word." Catastrophe, perhaps?
