News (engl.)

Germany's Nations League campaign ended in frustration after a 2-1 defeat to Portugal in the semi-finals. Despite taking the lead, the DFB-Team couldn't hold on – and the reaction from players and staff was brutally honest. We’ve rounded up the team’s post-match thoughts.

Joshua Kimmich: We fully deserved to lose. Even in the first half, we just didn’t do enough. And after we went 1-0 up in the second half, there was nothing from us. We need to learn from this defeat. If we’re not at 100 percent, we simply can’t beat a top European side. Purely in terms of performance, that was one of our worst games.

Leon Goretzka: We came into this to win, but didn’t manage it. In fact, we deserved to lose. The goal should have settled us, but it did the opposite. It’s hard to believe we threw it away like that. We didn’t show enough courage, and we lacked game intelligence. We’ve only got ourselves to blame – and that makes it all the more painful.

Robin Koch: The first half was alright. Then we took the lead, and it felt like our game just fell apart. We gave the ball away far too easily, and that let Portugal grow into the match. Especially in the second half, we offered far too little. We were determined to win this one – it’s a really tough one to take.

Julian Nagelsmann: Portugal deserved the win – they were the better team. In truth, we already let it slip in the first half. If we’re not at our best, we can’t compete with the top sides. We lacked sharpness and aggression today. We had a strong team out there, but we were always half a step too slow. Maybe if we’d scored in the first half, we could’ve found our rhythm. Instead, we go ahead after the break and then completely drop off – that’s something we have to fix.