EVIAN: Title contenders Germany are not thinking about their 3-1 defeat by Slovakia in a friendly international last month as they prepare to face them again in the Euro 2016 Round of 16 on Sunday.

The world champions slumped to a surprise 3-1 loss on May 29 in their penultimate warm-up game for the tournament in France but said that encounter meant little to them now.

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"You cannot take that friendly game as a standard," Germany assistant coach Thomas Schneider told reporters on Thursday. "We know Slovakia challenged us but that was part of our preparation and now it is a knockout game."

The Germans are also hoping they can continue keeping clean sheets at the championship in the possible absence of central defender Jerome Boateng who is nursing a muscle injury.

Boateng was taken off 14 minutes from time against Northern Ireland and did not train with the team on Wednesday. All players were given the day off on Thursday.

"His injury is regressing. We are confident but obviously I am not a prophet," Sorg said. "We hope it will work. There are still two training sessions until the game and we hope it will be enough for him to be fit on Sunday."

As for the new grass to be laid at Lille stadium after being damaged by bad weather and frequent play, Sorg said: "It cannot be a disadvantage because it could not be any worse than it was."

Germany played their group-opening 2-0 win over Ukraine at that stadium.