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Babbel: Young Guns Can Win It Or Lose It For Germany

Former Germany defender Markus Babbel believes his country’s chances at EURO 2008 are up in the air following their shock loss to Croatia last night…

The Germans lost their mantle as one of the tournament favourites after being downed by a talented and determined Croatia outfit in the Austrian town of Klagenfurt.

Darijo Srna and Ivica Olic gave the Vatreni a 2-0 lead, and while Lukas Podolski scored his third goal of the tournament, the Mannschaft failed to equalise and lost 2-1 to remain on three points and slip to second place in Group B.

Speaking in the build-up to the clash at the Worthersee Stadion, Babbel insisted there was much to be positive about but admitted there are doubts concerning the collective youth of the German squad.

"On our day we can beat anyone and there is a lot of optimism for the Germany side at the moment," the former Bayern Munich and Liverpool right-back told LFC Magazine.

"But there's also a fear that things could also go wrong. It's a very young team which is still learning at international level and there are a couple of good players coming through who people might not know too much about - like Mario Gomez - who we have at Stuttgart.

"That all means that anything can happen."

Goal.com - Euro 2008 - Babbel: Young Guns Can Win It Or Lose It For Germany