England looked tired, says Germany´s Loew

German coach Joachim Loew said Friday his young team was still bursting with energy and raring to go, as opposed to a “tired” England who they knocked out of the World Cup.

The Germans ran riot against their old enemy in the round of 16, crushing them 4-1 and consigning English hopes to yet another failure.

Loew has a youthful team in South Africa, with their average age under 25, compared to England’s golden generation.

Despite a gruelling season, he said he was not sure why England’s players should have been so out of touch.

“I don’t really know what could have made England tired,” he said.

“I don’t know how they prepared but during the match we felt we were able to add to our speed.

“England players like (Steven) Gerrard and (Frank) Lampard always play fast. But I saw then running around not up to the speed that I’m used to seeing them.

“As for us, we prepared very intensively. The season was long and it might have been difficult for them to take intense training. Maybe our team is just younger and regenerated faster the day after.

“We are in top physical shape.”

England, who have not won the World Cup since lifting the trophy for the only time in their history on home soil in 1966, were widely expected to reach the quarter-finals at the very least.

But they failed to top a group labelled ‘EASY’ (England, Algeria, Slovenia and Yanks – the United States) by Britain’s biggest-selling Sun newspaper.

They could only draw with the Americans and were held to a goalless stalemate by Algeria before scraping a 1-0 win against the Slovenians.

That meant a last 16 clash against the Germans, who have repeatedly ended England’s hopes at major tournaments since a team captained by Bobby Moore beat the then West Germany in the 1966 final.