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| June 18, 2005 | Saturday | Jumadi-ul-Awwal 10, 1426 |
Jaidi shrugs off Podolski threat
COLOGNE (Germany), June 17: Tunisia’s giant defender Radhi Jaidi shrugged off the threat of home town boy Lukas Podolski and said the African champions would match Germany strength for strength in Saturday’s Confederations Cup match in Cologne.
Jaidi, who will have the task of marking Cologne’s ‘wunderkind’ in front of his home fans, said Tunisia were well aware of the talent of the 20-year-old but not in awe of German football’s new strike threat.
“I know him, I watched him in his last game and I saw how he played. But I’ll be doing my job, I know what I have to do with him,” Jaidi said on Friday.
The Bolton Wanderers defender, who competed at the last World Cup finals and was a stalwart of the African Nations Cup-winning team last year, said Podolski deserved respect and that Tunisia would keep an eye out for him.
But asked about the pressure of facing the striker in what is being described as the ‘Court of Prince Poldi’, Jaidi added: “He might be motivated in front of his home crowd but I will be even more motivated to mark him out of the game.
“The German players are all physically strong and they have high quality but we intend to be just as hard. This is a game we must win.”
Tunisia lost their opening match 2-1 to Argentina in Cologne on Wednesday while the Germans scored a 4-3 win over Australia in Frankfurt the same night in Group A.
“Playing in Germany against the home country and their fans is a big thing for us. We know we must win to have any chance of a semi-final place and we expect to try and win, but we are also here to learn.”
Jaidi, who turns 30 in August, said his own game had improved vastly since his move to the English Premier League last year, joining Bolton as an unknown from Tunisian champions Esperance and quickly making his mark with consistent defending and some important goals.
“I’m a little disappointed I did not go earlier but in the time I have left in my career I still have a lot I want to do,” said a player who has also appeared in two African Champions League finals.—Reuters
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