Government spokesman Georg Streiter says Merkel would be able to go to Friday's match in Gdansk, Poland, because the Italian government moved forward by several hours a meeting in Rome with her Italian and Spanish counterparts.
Germany, Europe's biggest economy, has been a major contributor to international bailouts for Greece and was instrumental in demanding structural reforms and hugely unpopular spending cuts in return. Merkel is not a popular figure in Greece.
Streiter stresses that the quarterfinal match is purely a sporting event. He says that the chancellor “hopes for an exciting and fair match