After Kahn's retirement from international football in 2006, Hildebrand stepped up to become Germany's number two and was Jens Lehmann's natural replacement during the Euro 2008 qualification. Somewhat surprisingly, Joachim Löw dropped Hildebrand from the final squad for the tournament and picked Robert Enke and René Adler ahead of him. Although Löw stated that Hildebrand was an important player and may return to the set-up in near future, he never appeared for Germany since his omission from their squad for Euro 2008.