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4 months ago
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Germany have reportedly gone the extra mile and brought in unusual measures to ensure their plans are kept under wraps ahead of Friday's Euro 2024 quarter-final against Spain.
Spain have won all four of their matches to date and conceded just one goal to establish themselves as the team to beat in Germany.
They now face a crunch clash with the hosts in Stuttgart, who are desperate to keep their tactics a secret as they bid to extend their run at their home tournament.
According to Bild, German staff have gone as far as to play loud music on their mobile phones to prevent any spies or passers-by from listening into Julian Nagelsmann's tactics for Friday's game.
The idea behind the bizarre measure is to drown out the conversations between Nagelsmann and his players.
Julian Nagelsmann has got his staff playing loud music to prevent spies listening to his tactics
The idea is to ensure any conversations between him and his players are drowned out
Germany face a huge challenge on Friday when they face a rampant Spain side in Stuttgart
They even did this with two of Bild's reporters on Wednesday morning, following them every step of their walk while playing the title song from the German children's series 'Benjamin Blümchen' and 'Cheri Cheri Lady' from 1980s pop duo Modern Talking.
The German squad is based at their Adidas site in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, which already has two fences in place covered with high tarpaulins.
Security also guard the entire facility, with police on horse back ensuring the players are kept safe.
But they are now going even further to reduce the risk of spies overhearing Nagelsmann's plans as we reach the business end of the tournament.
Nagelsmann previously had issues with spies at his former club Bayern Munich in 2022, and is keen to make sure this does not happen again.
Germany have also been wary of spies in the recent past and trained behind high walls at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
However, they failed to benefit from this as they were knocked out in the group stages after losing to Japan in their final game.
They have fared much better this time around in front of their passionate home crowd, topping their group after beating Scotland and Hungary before drawing with Switzerland.
Nagelsmann dropped Florian Wirtz (left) for Leroy Sane (right) in the last-16, but has not given away any clues as to who will start the quarter-final tie with Spain
They then secured a 2-0 win over Denmark in the last-16, although it was a trickier game than the scoreline suggests, with the Danes having a goal disallowed for a marginal offside prior to Germany being awarded a penalty for a debatable handball.
Nagelsmann sprung a surprise in the last-16 tie by dropping Bayer Leverkusen star Florian Wirtz in favour of Leroy Sane.
He must now weigh up whether he should bring Wirtz back in to face Spain, but is determined to not give the media or any potential spies an inkling into how he might set up his side.
The 36-year-old manager is also trying to keep away any distractions for his players, confirming before the knockout stages that he had banned agents and advisors from the squad's training base in a bid to shield his team from transfer speculation.
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