Bierhoff: “Italy is not as scary as it used to be. At Euro 1996 I was not deployed because I played for Udinese…”

Oliver Bierhoff, former striker for Udinese from 1995 to 1998 and the German national team, gave an interview to Gazzetta dello Sport ahead of the Nations League quarterfinal between the Azzurri and the German…

His words.

FROM 2004 TO 2022 HE WAS MANAGER OF GERMANY AND CHALLENGED ITALY THREE TIMES AT THE TOURNAMENTS… “They were always tense, hard-fought matches. A World Cup and two European Championships, with so much at stake: two semifinals and a quarterfinal. Two defeats for us, then the liberation of 2016. But my memories of setbacks against Italy begin much earlier….”

THE DEFEAT AGAINST THE AZZURRIANS IN THE MILITARY WORLD CUP… “We lost 2-0. I was 19 years old and on the other side were players like Vialli and Ferrara. There was already talk that they were great soccer players. But there was also talk about a guy who was going to explode, even though he was not at that tournament: Paolo Maldini.”

IN 1996 HE WON THE EUROPEAN WITH GERMANY, BUT DID NOT PLAY IN THE GROUNDS AGAINST THE AZZURRI… “What anger. I stayed out because of the Italians, in the sense that coach Vogts explained to me, ‘You play in Udinese. They know you.’ But after that game Fredi Bobic got hurt and there was room for me.”