A proud nation expects their team to deliver and they've even sent the chancellor along to give a team talk, writes KEITH DUGGANin Gdansk

HIGH EXCITEMENT and heavy security in the German team camp yesterday: Chancellor Angela Merkel was due to pay a dinner-time visit to the team hotel in a secluded, leafy part of Gdansk. “It’s an honour and a good omen,” said Per Mertesacker, the rangy full back. “She can be very funny and witty. She has this way of addressing us in five or six sentences and getting her message across to us.”

Michael Noonan would doubtlessly empathise with Mertesacker’s observation.

But the chancellor’s visit was a subtle reminder of the fact the German nation has expectations for its team in these European Championships. Her visit meant security cordons were posted on all roads to the Oilwski Dwor Hotel, a sedate, 17th century Prussian retreat turned 21st century spa house. The Germans spent €5 million on a nearby training pitch and set up a vast Olympics-scale media tent nearby with an emphasis on eco-energy on the grounds near their living quarters.

It was there Mertesacker and goalkeeper Manuel Neuer sat for an hour and discussed everything from the shooting technique of Ronaldo (“It won’t be any more difficult than facing Mesut Özil”), to the quality of the blinds in their bedrooms (“I sleep very well actually, it is not too bright”), to their views on human rights issues in Ukraine (“The decision has been made to play the tournament there so we must, as sportsmen, provide light with our play”).

Outside, Oliver Bierhoff, the German general manager who seems to have aged all of one month since he scored the golden goal in the final of Euro 96, tried out one of the e-bikes and the dazzling Mercedes eco-car parked out front. People played on the fussball tables and ate at the complimentary café.

It was all very adult and civilised: no angst, no paranoia or scandals or rows. And every detail illuminated the fact that when it comes to organisation, the Germans do not merely live up to national stereotype, they effortlessly surpass it.

Bierhoff is a wonderfully suave and amicable front man for German football but his presence around the team is a reminder of the fact Germany have failed to win any major tournament since he broke Czech hearts with that extra-time goal at Wembley.

In the years since, German football has shed its skin: gone is the remorseless patience and the formidable concentration which invariably cancelled out the flair-driven teams. A new German ethos emerged under Jurgen Klinsmann and with it came an expansive attacking style which was embodied by the thrilling breaks down the flank by fullback Philipp Lahm when the Germans hosted the World Cup.

That carefree abandon – and a heartfelt surge of patriotic pride the Germans permitted themselves during that summer of 2006 – saw the team advance to the semi-finals and become national darlings in the process.

Two years ago in South Africa under Joachim Löw, they persisted with bold, imaginative football and, as a natural consequence of more relaxed citizenship laws, fielded teams reflecting the multi-ethnic complexities of the country. But there is a suspicion that exhilarating as that transition has been for German fans, it has come at the cost of the traditional emphasis on defensive superiority.

Football tradition has been turned on its head since “German efficiency” was the most common cliché in the game. Spain, once the unreliable playboys of major tournaments, are threatening to become serial winners.

In May, the Champions League final cast doubt over German infallibility in penalty competitions when Chelsea beat Bayern Munich in a nerve-wracking penalty shoot-out: Neuer saved one, scored one and conceded four in the drama and was inconsolable afterwards.

But the old idea that German teams are not supposed to lose on penalties no longer applies.

When Germany open their campaign against Portugal in Lviv on Saturday night, there will be little doubt about their capacity to create champions. Instead, German fans will look to see how their back line responds to any stress-testing from Ronaldo and company.

But Neuer was happy to stress that quality of his team-mates rather than the importance of any system.

“A good start is vital,” the big goalkeeper said. “Things have changed since 2010. Prior to that tournament I had no clue that I would become the German number one. Now, I am happy that I can assume those responsibilities and do justice to my role of keeping a clean sheet. And I think we have a fantastic back four – our full backs are capable of playing centre back if need be.

“You can ask Per about this. We are very versatile. I don’t think we must practise automated roles and patterns. All the players assembled here have important roles for their clubs. We know each other and what we are doing. And I think we are more mature now – we have more of a blind understanding between players.”

The attacking instinct through the play of Thomas Muller, Özil and Mario Gotze will bring them goals. But the traditional Germanic virtue of clean sheets could well become the defining issue as they try to steer a passage through the fabulously difficult Group B they share with the Netherlands, Denmark and Portugal.

The shift in the German approach was articulated here yesterday when Mertesacker was asked if it was true that Löw preferred a score line of 4-2 to 1-0

“Each game is different,” argued Mertesacker, who has experienced his share of erratic scorelines since he joined Arsenal. “You can’t say we would like this score or that.”

And that is the thing: once upon a time it seemed as if Germany could inflict their will upon football games of major importance and inexorably dictate the pattern of play. The new Germany is different and all the more exciting for it. But as the Germans gathered in the reception rooms of their plush residence in Gdansk to hear the carefully chosen message from Chancellor Merkel, they will be under no illusion that while spontaneity and the gaiety of the nation is all very well, they are in the tournament to prove they are the best in Europe.

“Of course we want to win the trophy!” said Neuer.

“But in the beginning we should just eat humble pie and hope to have a positive start to the tournament.”