"Spain and Germany are playing the best football at the European Championship"

Barcelona midfielder Ilkay Gundogan said on Wednesday that "Spain and Germany are playing the best football at the European Championship" and that next Friday's quarter-final will be "a match of equals".

"It will definitely be a match of equals. I think both teams are probably playing the best football in the tournament at the moment. We both want to have a lot of the ball and they are defined by a lot of possession," he said in an interview with UEFA."The key will be to see who can cope better with being out of possession for the stretches he plays and who doesn't get carried away by fear, stays calm and waits patiently for the moment when he gets the ball back," he added.

The German was delighted with the young talent of Barcelona team-mate Lamine Yamal: "What makes him so special is that he plays fantastic football at a very high level at the age of 16. When you see how he plays and his level of maturity... it's great to watch. He still has a long way to go, but to do so many things well at 16? It's extraordinary," he said.

He also praised Rodri, with whom he shared a dressing room at Manchester City. "He is among the two or three best defensive midfielders in the world, maybe even the best. You can always pass him the ball, he always asks for it, he almost always makes the right decision, and he almost never loses the ball. He's a player that every coach and every team would like to have in their team," he said.

And he sent a warning to Spain about Germany's level: "There's no reason why we shouldn't be confident. We have a very good team, we are well established, we have clear ideas and concepts that we have already applied on the pitch and that have worked very well so far. "