Low disappointed with Germany´s second-half collapse against Netherlands

Joachim Low criticised Germany’s inability to follow his tactical plan in a “disappointing” 4-2 Euro 2020 qualifying loss at home to Netherlands.

Late goals from debutant Donyell Malen and Georginio Wijnaldum settled a classic clash at Hamburg’s Volksparkstadion on Friday, earning Ronald Koeman’s side revenge for their 3-2 home loss to Germany in March, in which Nico Schulz scored a 90th-minute winner.

Victory for Netherlands boosts their hopes of qualifying for next year’s tournament by moving them to six points from three Group C games, though they remain three points behind Germany and a further three back from leaders Northern Ireland.

Germany go to Windsor Park in Belfast on Monday with Low accepting his team’s display against the Oranje, conceding four goals after the interval, was not up to scratch.

“I am disappointed. We played under our technical ability,” he told RTL.

“Even though we were in the lead at 1-0, we never had the feeling that we had the game under control. We lost too many balls.

“The plan was to get more control. In the first half we ran after them too much.

“But Netherlands became more powerful and we could not free ourselves. The Dutch could move up, we played high balls.

“That was not our understanding of the game, what we really want.”

Football is a simple game – 22 men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Dutch always win. pic.twitter.com/E9WBjLhh7u

— Marten de Roon (@Dirono) September 6, 2019

Germany only had 39.2 per cent of the ball before the break, though turning the tables with 59.5 per cent of possession in the second half resulted in them being hit on the break repeatedly.

“We did not play well in the first half and we had very little possession,” he added. “It cannot be our game to have so little possession.

“There was a bad game today, we have to learn from it and make things better again in Northern Ireland. We really wanted to win the game today and we did that very badly today.”