Loew turns to youth for friendly with France

Germany coach Joachim Loew has responded to his mounting injury list by giving youth a chance in next Wednesday’s Euro 2012 warm-up friendly against France.

Germany host the French in Bremen and this is Loew’s last chance to look at prospective players for Euro 2012, to be hosted by Ukraine and Poland, before he names his final 23-man squad in May.

Loew is without four first-choice names in vice-captain Bastian Schweinsteiger (ankle), teenage midfield star Mario Goetze (groin), forward Lukas Podolski (foot) and defender Per Mertesacker (ankle).

To compensate, 22-year-old twins Lars and Sven Bender have been called up into the midfield from Bayer Leverkusen and Borussia Dortmund respectively.

Dortmund’s Mats Hummels, Schalke’s Benedikt Hoewdes and Bayern Munich’s Jerome Boateng, all 23, will be competing for the centre-back berths in defence.

Borussia M’gladbach attacking midfielder Marco Reus, 22, is also included on the back of strong performances in the German league where he has scored 13 goals in 20 Bundesliga games this season.

“Despite the injuries, there is no initiative to make big changes,” said Loew at a press conference in the capital.

“Even if the door is not completely closed yet, there are still a few players we are looking at for the European Championships.

“The preparations for previous tournaments has shown that it makes little sense to give a detailed prognosis of who will ultimately be in the squad in February.

“We only have to give our final decision before we leave for the tournament.”

Real Madrid midfielders Sami Khedira and Mesut Ozil are also included, while upfront Loew has named three strikers in Bayern Munich’s Mario Gomez, Stuttgart’s Cacau and Miroslav Klose of Lazio.

Klose has made 113 appearances for his country and with 63 goals to his credit, is just five short of the all-time German record number of goals.

Germany have drawn Portugal, the Netherlands and Denmark in Group B at Euro 2012 and are among the favourites to win their fourth European title.

This will be the first meeting between France and Germany since 2005 and the French have had the better of the encounters with 10 wins, compared to Germany’s seven and six draws.