Germany must accept ‘painful’ Uefa Nations League failure
Manager Joachim Low said Germany must move past their “painful” relegation from the top tier of the inaugural Uefa Nations League.
The Netherlands’ 2-0 win over world champions France in Rotterdam ensured that the 2014 World Cup winners will slip into League B no matter the result of their clash with the Dutch in Gelsenkirchen today.
“For us, this result is obviously painful, but we must accept it,” Low said.
The Germans beat Russia 3-0 in a friendly on Thursday, with youngsters Leroy Sane, Niklas Suele and Serge Gnabry scoring the goals, and Low insisted his side has a bright future.
“Our eyes remain fixed on Euro 2020, for which we will qualify and where we want to send a strong team again,” he added.
“We will continue to make room for our young players and to gradually integrate them into the national team.”
The Netherlands have put behind them the poor form that saw them miss out on the last two major tournaments and even manager Ronald Koeman is pleasantly surprised by Friday’s victory over world champions France.
“We’ve have shown we are broken the slump but I did not expect that we would be so much better through 90 minutes,” said a delighted Koeman after a 2-0 win in Rotterdam inflicted a first defeat on the French since they won the World Cup in Russia.
The result means the Netherlands can win the group if they draw in Gelsenkirchen against Germany on Monday, usurping the last two World Cup winners to advance to next June’s Nations League finals.
“I also did not expect that this team would be as far in their reading of a match. We’ve shown on such a night that we’ve made enormous steps. From the beginning to the end we played really well,” Koeman said.
Georginio Wijnaldum scored just before half time and Memphis Depay converted a late penalty as the Dutch dominated against the world champions, looking much changed from the side that missed out on the 2016 European Championship and the last World Cup in Russia.