German forward Thomas Muller expressed his disappointment after the four-time World Cup winner crashed out from the World Cup and termed it ‘absolute catastrophe’ on Friday. It is significant to mention it is the second successive time that Germany has been eliminated from the group stage. “It’s an absolute catastrophe. It is unbelievably bitter for us because our result would have been enough [if Spain hadn’t lost to Japan]. It’s a feeling of powerlessness. If that was my last game for Germany, it has been a tremendous pleasure, thank you very much,” said Muller.
Despite a 4-2 victory over Costa Rica at Al Bayt Stadium, Japan’s 2-1 victory over Spain in Doha effectively eliminated Germany’s chances of qualifying from Group E.
A 2-1 loss to Japan in their opening game at Qatar 2022 proved costly for Germany, which is set to host Euro 2024 in just over 18 months.
With that tournament fast approaching, German coach Hansi Flick did not address his own future as the coach and stated that significant adjustments will be required to ensure Germany’s competitiveness in Euro 2024.
“In light of the Euros, it is difficult to talk about that right now, but we need to assess our World Cup, head into a different direction. This is the next step we will take, and we will do it very soon. We can get up quickly and recover. We will see what the future looks like and how we can implement our ideas. I am a very critical person and we will assess everything,” said Flick.
The inability of Spain to avoid defeat versus Japan was decisive for Germany, but Flick insisted that his team had no one but themselves to blame for their defeat.
“I don’t care about different teams, it’s all up to us. If you look at the games and number of goals that were our fault, I am convinced that we gave away our chances against Spain and Japan. You have to take your chances and score goals. If we had, it would have been a different story. There were lots of individual mistakes in the games and it made me very angry. I told the team I was upset. But I am not looking for excuses. We fulfilled our duty today, we got the win, but the scoreline could have been better,” stated the German coach.