Rafael Van Der Vaart has identified the three Germany players that his Netherlands side should be wary of in their Euro 2012 clash on Wednesday.
Bert Van Marwijk's side take on Die Mannschaft in Kharkiv in the second round of Group B fixtures, with the Oranje in desperate need of a win following their shock 1-0 defeat to Denmark in the opening round.
Despite Germany currently sitting joint-top of the group following their win over Portugal last week, Van der Vaart has moved to play down the overall potency of Joachim Low's side, suggesting that only three of their players pose a genuine threat.
"I only count three good players in the Germany squad: [Mesut] Ozil, [Mario] Gotze and [Bastian] Schweinsteiger," he told NUsport. "They're defence is okay, but that's all.
“I think we have more quality. But football is also about confidence, and that's what they will have now.”
Van Der Vaart was part of the Netherlands side which lost 3-2 to Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich in a pre-tournament friendly last month, but the Tottenham star claims that the attacking play showcased by Oranje was indicative of their abilities.
"In terms of playing, we have more to bring. At the back we can hurt them,” he explained. “The friendly against Bayern Munich wasn't a real test case, even though we scored two world-class goals. In that respect we can make the difference."
The last time Netherlands and Germany met was in a friendly in Hamburg back in November, when Low's side recorded an impressive 3-0 win. Van der Vaart, however, insists that the defeat should be taken in isolation due to the weakened team fielded by Bert van Marwijk.
"The 3-0 loss in Hamburg was an incident [sic], we had a lot of absentees at that time," the 29-year-old said.
Netherlands and Germany face off in Kharkiv on Wednesday at 20:45CET.
BY CLARA CHOOIASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR KUALA LUMPUR, May 25 ― The Election Commission (EC) has confirmed that its year-end redelineation exercise will involve an increase in federal seats but its chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof said it would be “impossible” to guarantee equal value for every vote.