London, June 28: Germany midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger has said they won't make any special plan to stop veteran Italian midfielder Andrea Pirlo ahead of their Euro Cup semifinal clash on Thursday.

Germany insist they will not be man-marking Pirlo, who was the main architect of Italy's quarterfinal win against England, and would be looking more to Mesut Özil to drop off and Schweinsteiger to push on, attempting to cut off Italy's supply lines at source.

"I like the way Pirlo plays but he is 33. What he's been doing in this tournament has been quite something, fantastic, really good to watch. But there's also a way to stop him,' The Telegraph quoted Schweinsteiger, as saying.

"You have to attack them. We'll have a certain aggression in our game. You need that," he added.

Schweinsteiger also rebuffed Pirlo's judgment that Germany could have a fear for Italy before the semifinal clash, and insisted that they had respect for Italy.

"Respect is there, and if you don't have any respect you're dumb. Italy are a great nation and have won a lot in the past, and have made a big step forward in the last two years," Schweinsteiger said.

"The point has come now, though, where we can beat the next big opponent. We've beaten Argentina, Brazil, England and Holland. The next one, we hope, will be the Italians. There's big respect, not fear. Respect for what they've done in the last two years, and given the scandals in their league: their national team is really positive," he added. (ANI)