World Cup 2018: Germany boss Joachim Low admits side deserved to go out

Published on: 27 June 2018

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World Cup 2018: South Korea 2-0 Germany - highlights

Germany manager Joachim Low says his side deserved to go out of the World Cup after they crashed out in the group stage in "historic" fashion.

The defending champions finished bottom of Group F after losing 2-0 to South Korea, the first time Germany have gone out in the first round of a World Cup since 1938.

"This is something for us to reckon with," Low said.

"This is historic. I am sure this will create some public uproar in Germany."

Sweden won the group with a 3-0 win over Mexico at the same time, which meant Germany needed to win their game in Kazan.

"We saw Sweden had taken the lead so we needed to keep the pressure up but our team was missing the ease of play and the classiness we usually have. So, we deserve to be eliminated, yes," said Low, who has been in charge for 12 years.

"At this tournament we didn't deserve to win again or move to the round of 16. We were eliminated not because we didn't want to win but we never had the chance to take a lead at any point - we were always lagging behind, trying to keep up."

Both of the South Korean goals came in injury time. Kim Young-gwon scored from close range, a goal initially disallowed for offside but then awarded after video assistant referee consultation.

And with goalkeeper Manuel Neuer losing the ball in South Korea's half, Ju Se-jong found Son Heung-min with a long ball and the Tottenham forward tapped into an empty net.

Germany's seismic exit

    This is only the second time that Germany have been eliminated in the first round at a World Cup, with the last occasion back in 1938 before the tournament introduced group stages Germany had reached at least the semi-final in their last four World Cups - getting to the final twice This is only their third time not reaching the last four since 1978, with quarter-final exits in 1994 and 1998 their worst runs in the following 40 years Germany are the fourth defending champions to be eliminated from the group stage at the World Cup in the last five tournaments (also France 2002, Italy 2010, Spain 2014) This is the first time Germany have not beaten an Asian team in the World Cup, winning the previous five meetings by an aggregate scoreline of 19-3

More to follow.

Source: bbc.com

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