News (engl.)

The Germany team and Julian Nagelsmann didn’t shy away from criticism following their bitterly disappointing 2-0 defeat in Bratislava and a poor start to World Cup qualifying. The players and head coach offered frank assessments after the match.

Joshua Kimmich: At no point did we show courage or desire. We started poorly and lacked all the key ingredients. There’s no point discussing systems or tactics – this was a question of mentality, and that’s been a problem in recent games too. But now is not the time to turn on each other. We all know it wasn’t good enough today. We have a chance to put it right in three days’ time. If we play like we did today, we won’t qualify for the World Cup. But we won’t let this break us. We believe in our quality – but we also have to show it on the pitch. Everyone needs to understand what’s at stake.

Julian Nagelsmann: I think we were clearly second-best emotionally. When the opposition bring more passion to the pitch, they usually perform better – that’s what happened today. If you look at the last ten years of this team, it should be obvious that we can’t just show up at 80 percent and expect to win comfortably. We were miles off what I’d call a good performance. We picked the best players in Germany, but maybe we need to prioritise players who give everything, rather than just quality. I still trust this team, but we need to approach games differently. Every player needs to realise we can’t win with the handbrake on. We’ve got five games left – and we need to win them all.

Oliver Baumann: Slovakia were much better when it came to second balls. We didn’t manage to close the spaces, stay compact or defend securely. They played with more passion than us. We had some moments and chances, but we couldn’t find the goal – and that gave them the momentum. We can’t start tearing ourselves apart now. We need to focus on getting the basics right. If we do that, we have the quality to play well. But today was definitely a setback.

Jonathan Tah: We struggled to get control at any point, both in and out of possession. We deserved to lose – that much is clear. It was a poor performance, and it doesn’t reflect our standards or expectations. We have to be honest with ourselves, learn from it, and do better in the next game.