The tie has an added spice to it given the political situation between both countries and the European Union as a whole, but Low says the future of Europe's single currency will not be an issue on or around the pitch in Gdansk.

"We have a very good relationship with [German chancellor] Angela Merkel and we have an agreement that she will not dictate the team to me and I will not make any political statements," said Low.

"For us, it is a totally normal quarter-final against Greece and we are focusing on sport."

Insinuations his side have turned too negative – compared to the side which earned many plaudits at the 2010 World Cup – tested Low's calm demeanour.

"You think we have veered away from our attractive football?" he asked.

"We beat Holland and Portugal after learning from conceding five against the Swiss that we had to find the right balance between defence and a strong attack.

"If we were playing Brazil in a friendly match then you can play with an exciting all-out attack, but not in a tournament. This does mean our philosophy of attacking has changed at the end of the day.

"You cannot always send every third or fourth ball into the penalty area – Holland and Denmark kept their opponents away from their half so we were forced to spread play sometimes instead."

But Low denies that Germany have been too defensive on their way into the last eight.

"You have got to try and keep a clean sheet, but without just building a wall," he said.

"There has been no wall-building here and we have been creating chances. Our attack remains our priority, but you have to find the right balance."

lThe German FA are facing a second fine for the behaviour of their fans – this time in the 2-1 win over Denmark.

The disciplinary proceedings were for the "display of inappro-priate banners and symbols, and inappro-priate chanting", but Uefa refused to confirm if any of those were racist in nature.