Germany manager Jurgen Klinsmann said he never lost confidence in his side even when they were one goal down against Argentina till the closing stages of the game. "Roberto Ayala's header for their goal was a beauty, but I was never worried about the fact that we were behind," FIFAworldcup.com quoted Klinsmann as saying after Friday's quarter-finals clash. Klinsmann's men were on the brink of elimination with Argentina one up until the 80th minute before Miroslav Klose equalized. The extra time ended in the same 1-1 draw and Jens Lehmann made a couple of great saves to give Germany a 4-2 win on penalties. "For the penalties, I had every confidence in all of the players taking them, and obviously in Jens Lehmann," he said. "What a great keeper. He's the one who got us into the semi-final today." Despite the hard-fought victory, the 41-year-old boss believes Germany deserved the ticket to the semis.
Klose "The whole game was on a knife-edge, but we had the better of the chances and were more efficient in front of goal, so overall we deserved to win," Klinsmann said. "We are obviously very happy and are enjoying the moment, but we're looking ahead and we want to go even further. "We're here to make progress. We know that we've got two games left, and we want to win both of them." Klinsmann, though, didn't forget to praise Argentina. "They showed us a lot of respect, which was apparent in the fact that they left Javier Saviola and Esteban Cambiasso on the bench," he said "We took a while to settle to begin with and couldn't get into the rhythm we had in other matches. "But I said to the team at half-time that it was only to be expected and that it wasn't a problem. I told them that they should just remain patient."
