Germany midfielder Sami Khedira on Tuesday hit back against criticism of players, including himself, who do not sing their national anthem before matches. Khedira also gave his backing to under-fire head coach Joachim Loew, insisting that he had the players' complete support despite a backlash against his tactics following their 2-1 Euro 2012 semi-final defeat to Italy.
"It (criticism of Loew) is something that has been completed over-exaggerated," he told a press conference in Frankfurt, where Germany play Argentina in a friendly on Wednesday. "People tried to find the reasons for our defeat but we won the Euro under-21 championships with eight originally foreign players and no-one said anything, in fact the team were celebrated as heroes. "As the coach said yesterday (Monday), it is better to sing but it doesn't determine whether someone is a good German," said the 25-year-old Real Madrid player, who has a Tunisian father and German mother.