Running man Ballack has benefited from playing with Chelsea, says Loew

Statistically, Ballack has been one of the players who has covered the most ground in the European Championship, and his displays have been vital in helping Germany set up a semi-final showdown with Turkey in Basle tonight.  

Ballack joined Chelsea from Bayern Munich in 2006 and Low believes the midfielder's fitness levels are noticeably better since he switched to England.  

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On the run: Ballack is put through his paces ahead of the Turkey clash

'Michael Ballack in the past few matches has really run a great deal and in the last two years he has played in the Premier League in the UK and he's had excellent progress physically - we noticed that when he joined us with the national squad in Germany,' said Loew.  

'He was injured for half a year but he worked hard in that period of time, so physically speaking he developed nicely playing in the Premier League because they play fast-paced football at a high-intensity.

'So at the moment he is in very good physical shape and he is capable of doing long runs in a match and at high speed. This is a development that we have seen in the past few months.'  

Captain Ballack may have another tiring night in store against the Turks, a side who have proven themselves virtually impossible to keep down during Euro 2008 so far.  

Turkey may have lost their opening match 2-0 to Portugal, but since then they have won three successive matches to reach their first European Championship semi-final. 

It has been the manner of those wins that has been the most impressive thing though, with Fatih Terim's side fighting back from deficits in all three matches before clinching last-gasp victories.  

Loew believes that Turkey's never-say-die attitude is something that has been developed over the last few years.  

'They have very strong runners and very technical players, and they have come up with great performances and have been highly motivated in the tournament,' Loew said.  

'They have always been excellent players and it's always been fun for them to play, but when they've been down they tended to be demoralised, but the have learnt never to give up and in particular to keep on running. Maybe this was not the same 10 years ago.'