Mole in the camp could harm Euro efforts bemoans Lahm

The Germans have been rattled by media revalations of who is going to be playing in games ahead of kick-off.

Low sprang a triple surprise for Friday’s quarter-final by dropping Mario Gomez, Lukas Podolski and Thomas Mueller for the 4-2 quarter-final win over Greece in Gdansk, but the changes had already been reported earlier that afternoon on various media outlets.

“It is a great pity if leaks like this occur and it is a disgrace that the line-up was in the public domain so early,” said Lahm. “The whole nation is standing behind us, everyone wants to move ahead and lift the trophy.

“The person who has the problem is the guy responsible for leaking that information, because at the end of the day, he might be damaging the hopes of a nation.

“Maybe that person hasn’t understood how team sports work. I think it is a shame, but we won’t be hiring any detectives to find out who it is.”

Low has already addressed the squad about the issue and has said: “It is not good when the cards are on the table so early”.

Now Lahm, who opened the scoring against Greece on Friday evening, insists the Germans have to be more careful about who they pass team information too.

“This is an issue for us, everyone has to be aware about who he gives information about team selection to,” said the 28 year-old. “We have to be extra careful from now on.

“It is normal for players to tell their wives or girlfriends if they are playing or not, but it is out of the question to pass the complete line-up onto an agent.

“We can share information with the closest family, but that is about it.”

It was common knowledge ahead of the opening Group B match against Portugal that Low intended to play Gomez, rather than Miroslav Klose, up front and he also dropped Arsenal’s central defender Per Mertesacker for Borussia Dortmund’s Mats Hummels.

News also leaked prior to the final group game against Denmark that Bayer Leverkusen midfielder Lars Bender would be used at right-back for the suspended Jerome Boateng.

Lahm believes that Spain remain favourites for the Euro 2012 title but accepts his Germany side are developing nicely.

“There is a lot of quality in our squad,” he said. “We have a lot of depth and that is a calming feeling ahead of the semi-finals.

“All 23 players are important. It’s good to know that even those who have not played for a while are able to come in and show their international class in a quarter-final. Spain are totally proving their quality. They are the team to beat.

“You see the way they played Saturday – that was impressive. France had practically no chance, above all in the first half – I am not sure if they even had the ball for more than two seconds. Therefore, they are still the team to beat.”

Midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger continues to battle a long-standing ankle injury, but Lahm said he is “certain” his Bayern Munich team-mate will be able to play on Thursday.