Germany boss Hansi Flick wasn’t happy with Bastian Schweinsteiger’s comments as the fall-out from their World Cup exit begins.
The Germans were knocked out of the tournament on Thursday night despite beating Costa Rica 4-2 in their final game of Group E.
Japan beat Spain to top the group with Germany needing the East Asian side to drop points for them to be able to progress after Flick’s side only picked up one point from their opening two group matches.
2014 winners Germany have now struggled to perform at their last two World Cups with former Bayern Munich manager Flick taking over from Joachim Low 18 months ago.
There has been a big backlash in Germany over the team’s performances and Flick did not like former Manchester United midfielder Schweinsteiger’s suggestion that other sides had more energy at the tournament.
Flick was visibly unhappy as he hit back: “That’s absolute nonsense. What’s that based on?”
Schweinsteiger said he was “shocked” by their exit but did not blame Flick for their departure from the World Cup.
The former Germany midfielder said: “The appearance of the national team is not enough, that’s not enough. We invited the opponent. The fundamental problem is that we often invite the opponent.
“I’m disappointed and shocked with how this went today. The national team did too little. It’s not good enough. Statistics don’t matter in the end. You have to take your opponent out of the game.”
On why they were knocked out, Flick added: “I am convinced we had possibilities and chances in the (last) match against Spain to win, but you have to take those chances and score and then it would have been a different situation for us.
“There are so many reasons (for Germany’s exit), but I am not looking to find excuses. We did not have a lot of time to train, but it is not down to that. We fulfilled our duty today and went off the pitch with a victory, but the result could have been better.”
Joshua Kimmich has yet to taste success with Germany and the Bayern Munich star is starting to feel like the team’s failure is “connected” to his time in the squad.
Kimmich said: “This was the worst day of my career. We blew the World Cup in 2018 and the Euros last year too. I’m afraid I’ll fall into a hole. It makes you think that these failures are connected to my person.”
Kai Havertz, who scored a brace against Costa Rica, added his thoughts: “We have to look at ourselves.
“We had enough chances…
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