German strength in depth is key for Klose

Veteran striker Miroslav Klose has said Germany’s strength in depth makes them a force to be reckoned with at Euro 2012 as their 4-2 hammering of Greece put them in the semi-finals.

Germany ran riot on Friday in the Arena Gdansk quarter-final with captain Philipp Lahm, Sami Khedira, Klose and Marco Reus all getting on the score-sheet.

Their goals cancelled out Giorgos Samaras’ and Dimitris Salpingidis’ second-half strikes for the Greeks as the Euro 2004 winners bowed out.

“Our bench is very, very strong which makes us stand out,” said 34-year-old Lazio striker Klose.

“Anyone can come in and play, which is great for us.”

Klose’s 68th-minute crisp header took him a step closer to the all-time scoring record of 1970s icon Gerd Mueller, closing the gap to just four as he notched up his 64th goal for his country.

“We knew that we could impose our game on the Greeks and get a few chances to score. That was just how things worked out,” added Klose.

Despite beating Portugal, Holland and Denmark in their three Group B matches, Germany coach Joachim Loew boldly opted to make three changes to his attack including bringing in Klose for Mario Gomez.

Loew also opted for Andre Schuerrle onto the left wing over Arsenal-bound Lukas Podolski and Reus for Bayern Munich’s Thomas Mueller as the changes paid off.

The Germans will now play England or Italy, who meet in today’s Kiev quarter-final, in the semi-final at Warsaw’s National Stadium on Thursday as they inflicted Greece’s heaviest defeat at a European championships.

“It goes without saying that we are happy to be in the semi-finals,” said Real Madrid goalscorer Khedira.

“We made it a bit exciting, but then we raised the tempo.

“When we fulfill our potential, we are hard to beat.”

The Germans opened the scoring when Lahm hit a sizzling 39th-minute strike past Greek goalkeeper Michalis Sifakis in a carbon-copy of his opener against Costa Rica in the first game of the 2006 World Cup.

“We made life unnecessarily hard for ourselves,” admitted Germany’s skipper.

“We created lots of chances and took the lead, but then gave it away again.

“We can be happy that we created more goals and are now in the semi-finals.

“Marco got his goal, so did Miro, we started really, really well, so we can be happy.”

Highest scoring matches

Highest scoring European Championship matches after Ger-many beat Greece 4-2 in Friday’s Euro 2012 quarter-final:

1960 semi-final: France vs Yugoslavia - 4-5
1976 semi-final: Yugoslavia vs West Germany - 2-4
1996 Group match: Russia vs Czech Republic - 3-3
2000 Group match: Yugoslavia vs Slovenia - 3-3
2000 Group match: Yugoslavia vs Spain - 3-4
2000 Quarter-final: Netherlands vs Yugoslavia - 6-1
2004 Group match: Croatia vs England - 2-4
2012 Quarter-final: Germany vs Greece - 4-2