The German midfielder was part of the Manchester City side which was beaten by Chelsea in the Champions League final last month.
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Manchester midfielder Ilkay Gundogan reckons that Chelsea’s Champions League victory can benefit Germany at Euro 2020. The midfielder was on the losing side as Man City lost the final by a solitary goal scored by Blues’ midfielder Havertz last month. Despite the defeat, Gundogan feels that the final will help his national teammates Havertz, Timo Werner and Antonio Rudiger – part of the winning Chelsea side. He believes the final victory will give these players a “massive boost”, which will inadvertently help Germany in the continental tournament.
Gundogan was particularly happy about Havertz scoring the winning goal and hopes that his country can benefit from it. “The Champions League win gives players a boost, gives them confidence,” he told reporters. “Especially Kai, who scored the winner, will have been given a massive boost, which we can use to help us as a team. I’m happy for them, they deserved it.”
However, the German midfielder is “extremely gutted” about losing the all-English final. In 2013, Gundogan was part of another losing finalist in the Champions League when Bayern Munich defeated his Borussia Dortmund side. “It’s not easy to stomach a defeat like this. We worked all year to get there – eight years for me. I lost the final again, and I’m extremely gutted about that, but life goes on, that’s the beauty of competitive sport,” he added.
“I had a few days off, which I needed I made good use of them. Now I’m focusing on the tasks at hand and I can look forward to the tournament, despite defeat in the final.”
Germany are placed in Group F, which is being regarded as the “Group of death”. World Cup winners France, defending European champions Portugal and Hungary are the other teams in the group. Germany start their campaign against France on June 15 and Gundogan opened up on what they have to do to beat Didier Deschamps’ side.
“We know we’re playing against a team with lots of talented footballers,” Gundogan said. “It could be that we have to sacrifice the majority of possession. We know that we can work aggressively off the ball. With two holding midfielders in a 3-4-3 formation, it’s extremely important to use the centre-backs in a way that they can help us break forward as well.
“It’s good to know that there are two players behind us that can protect the space. This makes it all the more important that the lads at the back support us. We can rely on that. It could be key to us winning back possession a lot and making France chase us.”
The Germans will play Portugal on June 19 before ending their Group F commitments with a game against Hungary four days later. This will be Joachim Low’s final tournament with Germany. He will be keen to end his reign on a positive note.
