Rudiger warns France that Germans will play ‘dirty’

Joshua Hall
Antonio Rudiger Germany
Antonio Rudiger

Antonio Rudiger has issued a warning to France as he insists Germany will have to play ‘a little dirty’ in order to stop their best players.

The two teams face off against each other in Group F on Tuesday opening up their Euro 2020 campaigns.

Rudiger has said he believes that Germany will need to ‘throw down a marker’ in order to stop the plethora of attacking talent in the French side.


England don’t look like England and that’s brilliant


The Chelsea centre-back said: “Of course, they have good forwards, we have to be ready to win the one-on-one challenges.

“We have to be a little dirty, not always be nice or try to play nice football.

”Against players like them, you have to throw down a marker.”

The French team are favourites to win the competition with Kylian Mbappe at the head of their bid to go all the way.

The Paris Saint German forward was asked about Rudiger’s comments and made it clear that he and his compatriots are focused on the task at hand and are not phased by Germany’s ‘weapons’.

He said: “Each man fights with the weapons at their disposal.

“Our weapons are to play together, to play our game. If those are their weapons, then they will play with theirs, we will play with ours.

“And we remain focused on our preparation, analysing well what their strengths and weaknesses are, and to try to begin this tournament well.”

Both nations face a tough start to the competition as they fight to get out of the ‘group of death’ alongside Portugal and underdogs Hungary.

The German’s will use their home advantage in the opener on Tuesday with the game being played in Munich, but France manager Didier Deschamps spoke to UEFA about playing away from home and said it was not a disappointment to them.

Les Bleus boss said: “We’re playing all our matches away from home, but it’s not a disappointment for me to have people in the stadiums, because football, the football we love, the football we know, means having fans in stands. It is about emotion, about sharing feelings, it is something we like, it is part of our everyday life. It is important for players.”