Success for Low’s counter-attack strategy

GERMANY manager Joachim Low pinpointed his team’s ability to hit England on the counter-attack as the reason for their 4-1 last-16 win in Bloemfontein.

England’s static defence were twice caught on the break in the second-half as two Thomas Mueller goals sealed Germany’s quarter-final place.

“We knew we could hit England on the counter-attack because they were open,” said Low.

“I am very proud they coped with the pressure and kept it on England.”

He added: “We are a very young team and it was a deserved win. The conviction of the team was very obvious on the pitch.”

Low explained that he had intended to make the most of England’s frailties at the back, particularly by forcing defender John Terry out of position.

“Today we were dominant,” Low said. “We were successful in luring Terry out of defence with (Thomas) Mueller and (Lukas) Podolski penetrating the wide defence. “We knew that the midfielders Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard always support the forwards, and that their midfield would be open,” Low continued.

“So our objective was to set Terry up with Klose to force him to come out of the defence. We knew that the full-backs would be very much to the sides and create spaces between the England defenders that would help us penetrate their defence.

“We wanted to do this and we were successful there,” he explained.

But Low also said that Uruguayan referee Jorge Larrionda and his assistant Mauricio Espinosa had made a mistake in failing to award England a goal for Frank Lampard’s lobbed effort over goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, which would have made the score 2-2.

“What I saw in the television this ball was behind the line, it must have been given as goal,” he said.

And Mueller, who scored a double in the second-round match, said the decision proved a pivotal moment in the tie. “Of course, we had some luck with Lampard’s effort,” he reflected.

“We knew we had to seize the opportunity with both hands. We got the stroke of luck and we knew we couldn’t give it away.

“I tried not to react to the referee and just concentrate on what was happening – it was difficult. I knew it was close. Then I saw it on the television in the doping control office and what actually happened. I knew it was tight – probably about two metres.

“This is the compensatory justice for Wembley [in the 1966 World Cup final],” he said.

Germany ensured any controversy was academic, when the pace of Bastian Schweinsteiger and Mesut Ozil carved England’s defence to shreds to set Mueller up for his two goals in the second half.

“I said to my team at the half-time break, we need to try and score the third goal,” added Low. “Our players carried it off brilliantly.