Euro 2016: Germany boss hits back at former captain Ballack

Germany boss Joachim Löw has hit back at former national team captain Michael Ballack who criticized Löw’s Euro 2016 squad of lacking leaders.
Ballack after Germany’s draw against Poland said the side lacked leaders ahead of their final group match against a Northern Ireland side with one eye on history.

Löw ducked the official Uefa pre-match press conference with a sore throat and his replacement, the assistant Thomas Schneider, was late because of the Paris traffic. On the pitch, despite some dazzling movement, it was Germany’s cutting edge that was absent against Poland, who saw less of the ball but had the better chances.
Not that any of this is likely to matter once Germany move into the business end of the 2016 Euro tournament and as Löw has pointed out, some of the criticism from back home has a cyclical feel.
“The discussion conjures a smile from me. In 2014 there was the discussion that we have no leading players.
“Then we were world champions and they were suddenly the great leading players. Now we play a 0-0 and have this discussion again. The players have great leadership.” Löw stated.
Ballack’s criticism also led to a withering response from the midfielder Sami Khedira. “Sami has done a good interview on that,” Schneider said. “He said it’s comedy, just like the manager has said. We’ve noticed about that and read about that but we have enough leaders in the team, and have shown that in the past.”
Khedira, who replaced Ballack in the Germany team towards the end of the former Bayer Leverkusen’s international career, said the criticism was “ridiculous”, reeling off the names of Manuel Neuer, Jérôme Boateng, Mats Hummels and Bastian Schweinsteiger in the case for the defence. In fact, Khedira said: “Germany has never had so many leaders.”
Germany and Poland go into their final Group C matches in a straight fight for top spot and, if both win, it will come down to goal difference, with Löw’s side better by one as things stand.