TENERO, Switzerland (AP) Germany coach Joachim Loew has arguably achieved more than predecessor Juergen Klinsmann by reaching the European Championship final with the same core of players that finished third at the 2006 World Cup.

Klinsmann's team played an all-attacking style two years ago, while Loew had gone back to three old German qualities stamina, commitment, efficiency. The Germans had only three shots on target during Wednesday's semifinal against Turkey, and all three went into the net in a 3-2 win.

Turkey's three late comebacks at Euro 2008 had a German quality about them, but the three-time European champions showed how it's done when the stakes are high.

"We are now looking forward to the final. Now, the pressure is over and we can have fun," Loew said yesterday.

Germany will be bidding for a record fourth title against Spain in Sunday's final at Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna after the Spanish beat Russia 3-0 in yesterday's semifinal.

There was little flair in Germany's performance, but the will to fight until the end meant the team escaped with a 90th-minute winning goal from Philipp Lahm, a defender who also set up its second goal by Miroslav Klose but also made glaring mistakes on both Turkish goals.

Germany has displayed a mystifying inconsistency at the tournament. It began with a strong 2-0 win over Poland, but then fell into disarray in a 2-1 loss to Croatia before securing progress to the quarterfinals by laboring to a 1-0 win over Austria.

The team beat Portugal 3-2 in easily its best performance, only to be followed by the plodding effort against Turkey, which had 17 shots to Germany's seven overall and outplayed its opponent over long stretches of the game in Basel despite being depleted by injuries and suspensions.

"There has been absolutely no consistency in teams in this tournament," Loew said at the team's training base in southern Switzerland. "We were not permanently at high level, we know it. But the most important thing is to win such games at a tournament like this.

"We are in the final and that's what counts. Our morale is high."

Germany had six days of rest between the quarterfinal and semifinal, and Loew thought that may been one cause for his team's poor performance.

"All teams that had long breaks and rested players had big problems. It may be better to keep the rhythm of playing every three or four days, we always played better when we had shorter breaks," he said.

Loew said there was "enormous relief" in the team when Lahm scored as he "thought the game was going into extra time."

Germany fell behind when Ugur Boral gave Turkey the lead in the 22nd minute. Bastian Schweinsteiger equalized in the 26th and Klose seemed to have closed out the match for Germany in the 79th. But Turkey again came back with a late goal when Semih Senturk scored in the 86th.

Most teams would then opt to settle for extra time. The Germans, however, looked for the goal and got it.

"We have the experience of this kind of tournaments over the years and we do believe we can win such games. We do have a winner's mentality," Loew said.

Loew can become only the second German coach to win a major title in his first tournament. Jupp Derwall won the 1980 European championship.

"It's a nice experience to be in a final. It's something special for me personally and I am enjoying it," Loew said.

Loew's previous two tournament experiences were as Klinsmann's assistant and both ended in the semifinals: at the 2005 Confederations Cup against Brazil and against Italy at the World Cup at home a year later.

"I am very pleased that we managed to get over that hurdle now," he said.

Germany's fun ride through the World Cup brought millions of fans to party in the streets and gave the national team a cult status. The entire experience is known in Germany as the "Summer Fairytale," which was also the title of a popular documentary.

The Germans are partying on the streets again, with an estimated 500,000 alone watching Wednesday at Berlin's "fan mile" strip that was also used at the World Cup. Loew showed his team a compilation of celebration scenes in a video clip to give his players extra motivation before the game with Turkey.

If the Germans win their first title since 1996, it could be a long night in Berlin and elsewhere.