Germany will head into hosting Euro 2024 with an "unbelievable optimism" of lifting the UEFA trophy on home soil. (More Football News)
That was the message from Germany sporting director Rudi Voller, who backed Julian Nagelsmann's team to succeed on their own turf when the tournament starts on June 14.
The three-time European champions have crashed out of the World Cup in the group stages at the last two competitions, as well as a last-16 exit to England at the delayed Euro 2020.
Yet Voller believes Germany have a chance to do something special under Nagelsmann, after watching two impressive friendly victories over France and Netherlands back in March.
"A key moment in our development was the last two [friendly] matches in March," Voller told a news conference on Monday, as Germany started their short training camp in Thuringia.
"We realised that after three and half months [under Nagelsmann] we had two convincing wins and in the inner circle there was more optimism.
"Unbelievable optimism. We don't need to go crazy that now everything works but we should have a measure of optimism."
Germany open the tournament against Scotland before facing Hungary and Switzerland in Group A.
Nagelsmann's team will warm up for the European Championship with friendly preparations against Ukraine next Monday and Greece four days later.
With preparations hotting up before the Euros heads to Germany, Voller insists the hosts can go deep into the tournament.
"Through those two international matches we want to be part of the group that are there until the end," he added.
"We have a home tournament. We should have the optimism to go very far and if it is Berlin [for the final] in the end, even better."
