Dutch good but not that good, says German coach Loew

Germany were impressed by the Netherlands' 3-0 win over Italy but coach Joachim Loew said today it was still too early to earmark their old rivals as title favourites.

"Holland certainly played a very good match but let's not call it the yardstick to judge everyone else by," Loew said, a day after the Dutch set the tournament alight by beating the world champions in Berne.

"They play very good technical football, it was a great game and very attractive to watch - but it wasn't that they dominated Italy completely.

"The Italians had their chances as well and if they'd equalised we might have seen a very different game."

Loew, speaking at a news conference, picked out his Germany team and Portugal as other sides to have played impressively in their first games.

"Portugal played very well in beating Turkey and we had a good start beating Poland," Loew said. "But you can't assume anything at this stage. We know we've played well just once. We all have to keep raising our game."

Germany's next chance to show what they can do in the group is against Croatia in Klagenfurt on Thursday, when victory would all but assure them of a place in the quarter-finals with one game to come against co-hosts Austria.

"Croatia will present a very different task," captain Michael Ballack told a news conference.

"They want to be European champions themselves and we know we have to improve from the Poland game."

Loew said on Tuesday that Germany have no injury concerns going into the second game.