Shaken Germany left to pick up the pieces

World champions Germany fly home from Euro 2016 for a post mortem into how die Mannschaft missed the chance to add the European title to their recent collection. “I think France are good, but we were better,” said Germany coach Joachim Loew

The 2-0 loss to France contradicts Loew’s appraisal as the post-mortem begins back home as to what went wrong. “France totally deserved to win,” ex-captain Michael Ballack told German daily Bild. Lothar Matthaeus was critical of Loew for having again changed his system, “it creates uncertainty”. Germany reverted to their standard 4-2-3-1 formation against France having played a back-three against Italy in the quarterfinals. After the Euros, Loew celebrates a decade in charge and under his stewardship they have reached at least the semifinals of the last six major tournaments.

The 56-year-old has a German FA contract until the 2018 World Cup finals in Russia. His bosses want to extend his deal, but Loew has left his future open and said he will consider his future in the light of their Euro 2016 postmortem. LOEW’S FUTURE OPEN “I’ll speak to the players and coaching staff when we look at the tournament,” said Loew.

“There will be a relatively short analysis of the tournament, as I didn’t see that we made many mistakes.” But die Mannschaft know they wasted their chance to beat the hosts. Germany were punished for some sloppy firsthalf finishing and failed to convert any of their 18 shots on goal, despite 68 per cent possession.

Loew knows the world champions lost their heads when the penalty was awarded against them and never fully regained their composure.

Discipline was a factor in Marseille as Liverpool’s Emre Can, in for injured Sami Khedira, picked up a needless yellow for bringing down Griezmann, then argued with the referee.