German coach ´devastated´ at defeat by Serbia

Joachim Loew’s frustration was all too evident after his Germany side’s impressive start to the World Cup was tarnished by Friday’s 1-0 loss to Serbia.

A 4-0 opening demolition of Australia had generated talk of his youngsters emerging as serious title contenders but defeat at the Nelson Mandela Bay stadium has left them with work to do to make it out of the first round.

While Loew is confident his side will progress Germany now face Ghana in their last Group D tie with the unwanted pressure of requiring a win to be sure of qualification.

This was not Germany’s day, with Miroslav Klose sent off for a second yellow card in the 37th minute, Serbia scoring one minute later, then Lukas Podolski missing a second half penalty.

“Lukas always scores from the penalty spot, so I left it up to him and Bastian Schweinsteiger to decide which of them took the penalty.

“They are both excellent penalty takers, I leave the decision up to the player who feels brave enough to score.

“Lukas didn’t take a good penalty, he usually hammers the ball home, this time it was relatively easy for the keeper to parry the ball away.

“Lukas had many other chances, but he had a problem today, I don’t know why he wasn’t hitting the target.”

Loew then turned to the performance of Spanish referee Alberto Undiano who was in trigger happy mood, dishing out a total of nine yellow cards, and red to Klose.

Klose got his marching orders for a second booking, a tackle on Serbia captain Dejan Stankevic.

“I didn’t think it was a bad tackle, Klose was unlucky to hit the other players’ legs. It was a harsh yellow.”

Loew was asked at the post match press conference what in particular had made him so annoyed on the touchline.

He replied: “I would have expected my players to bring in more precise crosses, that got on my nerves.

“Then as far as the referee was concerned I didn’t think it was generally a very rough match.

“There were a couple of fouls from behind which perhaps deserved a booking but many cards were given for tackles that weren’t at all malicious. The sending off could have been avoided.”

Loew said he was “devastated” at the loss but nevertheless took pride in how his men had come out and played for much of the second half – the penalty miss apart.

“In the first half we weren’t able to develop such a dominant game as like against Australia.

“In the second my team even with one man down tried to stand up. We had some excellent chances, four or five, and a penalty. It’s a pity we didn’t get a draw.”

Despite losing out on three points Loew was still confident of staying in South Africa beyond the first round.

“Obviously this puts us under more pressure but we will make the round of 16.

“Why? Because we have the resolve and willingness to go through. We won’t get nervous because of today, we still have our fate in our own hands.”

He dismissed a suggestion that Germany were in a similar position to Euro 2008, when they lost their second match after an opening win.

“It’s not at all like 2008, I wanted to avoid what happened there, I didn’t want the extra pressure in our third match, but today against Serbia my team played much better than in our second game in 2008 against Croatia.”