Germany's Jerome Boateng admits World Cup campaign was a 'disaster'

Sport360 staff 19:21 28/06/2018
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  • Germany defender Jerome Boateng believes the defending champions’ World Cup was a “disaster”.

    A humiliating 2-0 defeat at the hands of South Korea meant Joachim Loew‘s team finished last in Group F.

    Germany’s national newspaper Bild declared the campaign as “the biggest disgrace in German World Cup history”.

    “Such a disaster. World Cup 2018 was not what we expected,” Boateng wrote on Instagram.

    “I’m still angry and disappointed and at the same time I feel sorry for all our fans who supported us in the stadiums.

    “Four years ago we were on top of the world – now we’re on the bottom. These are the days in the life of a football player nobody envies you for. But that’s life.

    “All I can say is thank you to our fans who always support us. We will analyse what went wrong and carry on working as we always did. I promise we’ll be back strong!”

    Goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, who was at fault for South Korea’s second goal after coming out of his goal and playing in midfield – where he lost possession – said he has no plans to retire from international football.

    The 32-year old accepted responsibility as a captain but admitted the entire squad was to blame for the mishappening.

    “You have to say we do not deserve (to go through),” Neuer said.

    “In the second round everybody would have liked to play against us. How are we going to be dangerous to an opponent if we do not get our performance (right)?

    “We gave a bad picture in the three games. I cannot answer why that happened. We have to take responsibility. We screwed up, (and) we screwed up together.”

    Neuer even apologised to his nation on Instagram saying – “We are just as disappointed as you! A World Cup is only every four years, and we had planned so much. We are sorry that we did not play as world champion.”

    “Therefore, we are well deserved to be knocked out, as bitter as it is.

    “In Rio 2014 we celebrated together. But sports also include defeat and recognition when the opponents were better.

    Neuer

    “We congratulate Sweden and Mexico on their progress and South Korea on yesterday’s victory.”

    Midfielder Mesut Ozil stayed off social media in the aftermath of the defeat, despite having provided regular updates to his 23 million followers over the last few days.

    Defender Mats Hummels though did post a crying emoji with the word “Sorry”.

    Meanwhile, coach Joachim Low will be giving a thought to what the future holds for him despite only signing a new contract in May until 2022.

    Asked whether he will continue as the German coach in a press conference, he said – “That’s hard to say.

    “Of course, it takes a couple of hours to look into that. I’m shocked, I’m shocked because we didn’t manage to pull it off.

    “Where we go from here, we’ll have to talk about it calmly. It will take me some hours now to come to terms with it. I’m incredibly disappointed by this elimination.”

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