Germans ‘deserve’ to crash

KAZAN, Russia — Germany coach Joachim Loew said he felt “huge disappointment” at seeing the holders crash out of the World Cup, but said they had fully deserved it after they were sensationally beaten 0-2 by South Korea on Wednesday.

The four-time champions needed to beat the unfancied Asians by two clear goals in their final Group F match in Kazan to advance to the Last 16.

But after spurning a series of scoring chances, Germany was stunned in five dramatic stoppage-time minutes as South Korea scored twice to record a historic win over the world’s number one-ranked team and leave the Germans rock bottom of the group.

It was the first time Germany had failed to reach the knockout stage of a World Cup since 1938.

“I’m shocked because we didn’t manage to beat South Korea and qualify,” said Loew, who said he would wait for “a couple of hours” before making any decision on his future.

“The disappointment of us being eliminated is just huge,” Loew conceded.

“We didn’t deserve to win the title again, we didn’t deserve to make the Last 16. We tried hard to win, but we never earned the chance to take the lead.”

Germany is the sixth holder in history to fall at the first hurdle and their demise came four years after defending champion Spain also failed to make it out of the group stage in Brazil.

Loew’s side began their campaign with a 0-1 defeat to Mexico before rekindling their bid with a last-gasp 2-1 win over Sweden. The Swedes won the group on Wednesday after beating Mexico 3-0, but the Central Americans also went through.

“First we need to congratulate our two opponents who made it out of the group,” said Loew. AFP