2024-06-08 00:23:54
Towards Greece, Manuel Neuer was answerable for one other purpose conceded. However the nationwide coach is supporting him. The group is self-critical.
The German nationwide group’s gown rehearsal for the European Championship in opposition to Greece on Friday was a bumpy one. Towards the Greeks, who didn’t even qualify for the match that begins subsequent Friday, the DFB group had a weak first half and had been 0:1 down for a very long time. It was solely within the second half that the group coached by Julian Nagelsmann turned issues round, first equalizing by way of Kai Havertz after which scoring the profitable purpose by way of Pascal Groß shortly earlier than the tip.
Within the weak first half, all eyes had been on goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, who let a reasonably innocent shot bounce off the sphere and thus prompted the opposing group to attain. One of many errors which have occurred extra regularly in latest weeks. With Marc-André ter Stegen, Neuer has a robust quantity two ready for his probability. However nationwide coach Nagelsmann nips any dialogue in regards to the goalkeeper query within the bud.
“I will not enable any dialogue to come up, even when everybody tries,” mentioned Nagelsmann on the RTL microphone after the sport. He referred to sturdy saves that Neuer additionally confirmed within the sport. “It is all the time simple on the finish, when a mistake has been made, to say: It is Manu,” mentioned Nagelsmann. The remainder of the group had additionally made a number of errors earlier than the goalkeeper’s mistake. “In the long run, it was a series of errors and if the goalkeeper can be concerned within the chain of errors, then you definately usually concede a purpose,” mentioned Nagelsmann. “However he made three saves and every little thing is ok,” assured the nationwide coach.
Manuel Neuer was self-critical after the sport. Errors had been made within the state of affairs earlier than, “however I am taking a look at myself now,” mentioned Neuer. “I ought to have gotten rid of him higher,” was his transient evaluation.
The group was additionally self-critical general. İlkay Gündoğan mentioned: “It was actually a check. The primary half was sluggish, that was punished coldly, the Greeks did properly. However, that’s not our benchmark.” Related conditions may come up within the opening match of the European Championship in opposition to Scotland. “That is why we can’t afford a primary half like that,” mentioned the group captain. The group can be taught from the 2 check matches. “I do not see it as a adverse factor, it is a studying course of, the senses are sharpened,” mentioned Gündoğan.
Toni Kroos tried to current a balanced image: “We all know that unhealthy halves are a part of soccer,” mentioned the midfielder from Champions League winners Actual Madrid. Nevertheless, one shouldn’t be too adverse. “We knew that we would not be nearly as good as we had been made out to be in March, but in addition not as unhealthy as perhaps earlier than,” mentioned Kroos. “So we’ve got to discover a center floor,” he mentioned. Within the first half, they gave away too many balls and bumped into counterattacks. Within the second half, nonetheless, issues appeared a lot better.
Nagelsmann additionally discovered the second half to be “good at instances” and added: “Within the first half, we misplaced the ball quite a bit for the primary time in a very long time, which frequently led to counterattacks.” That was additionally the case with the purpose we conceded. “We talked about that at halftime. Then the group carried out it a lot better within the second half, there was much more depth,” he praised and was pleased with the ultimate end result: “The win is necessary for the general environment, you could possibly really feel that within the stadium and it was deserved in the long run.”