Euro 2024 director Philipp Lahm can well imagine a surprise team in the last four of the tournament, with outsiders Austria possible contenders.
"I'd still like to see a surprise team that might even make it to the semi-finals, where nobody expected them to," Lahm told reporters in Leipzig on Monday.
"I'm confident that Austria will progress, they have a good team, maybe Austria will be the surprise team."
Austria sit third in Group D but a win over the Netherlands in their final group match on Tuesday could catapult them into a better draw for the last 16.
The 2014 world champion is also counting on Julian Nagelsmann's Germany making it at least that far after they qualified top of their group for the last 16.
"Anything is possible. First of all, we have very good players. As we've seen, they also work well as a team. Nevertheless, you never know when it comes to the knockout matches. Spain look very stable to me," added the 40-year-old.
Lahm was speaking in Leipzig where the popularity of the fan zone in the eastern German city continues unabated.
Despite recent storms, city council official Heiko Rosenthal told dpa: "We can see...that the area is pretty much full for every match and certainly for Germany matches. The storm issue was unfortunate because we couldn't keep the fan-fest open. The demand is huge and won't stop."
