Too many things went wrong for Germany: Coach Loew

Germany's football team head coach Joachim Loew said that too many things went wrong for his side during the 0-2 defeat to France in the European Championship semi-final here.

Antoine Griezmann was the hero for the hosts, as he on Thursday scored twice to secure a 2-0 victory over the reigning world champions and set up final clash against Portugal on Sunday.

Even though Loew admitted the mistakes by his players, he claimed that his side was better than the French.

"Too many things went wrong but I must give a great compliment to the team, we were the better side. We gave a lot and had a body language of power. It was unfortunate that we conceded the goal, that was bad luck, the ball touched the hand a minute before half-time," Loew was quoted as saying by goal.com after the loss.

"We had our chances, regretfully we didn't score. We didn't have the luck we needed but in 2012 (European Championship semi-final loss to Italy) or 2010 (World Cup semi-final loss to Spain) when we went out, the side that beat us were better than us. Today that wasn't the case, we were better than the French."

There was an air of controversy over his opening goal on the stroke of half-time, however, with referee awarding Les Bleus a penalty after Germany captain Bastian Schweinsteiger was adjudged to have handled the ball in the area.

Loew, though, said the decision was merely "bad luck", and maintains that his side was the better team at Stade Velodrome.

"I don't say anything about referees' decisions, you have to accept them. The penalty, I don't know, there is this rule, if the hand is not on the body? if you see how Bastian approached the ball, the ball touched his hand in a tenth of a second," the coach said.

"The player can't think about that, it's bad luck. You can say the hand shouldn't be there but there are movements when you jump and you can't control them. I can't blame any player for that," Low added.

--IANS

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