Germany learned painful lesson, admits Bierhoff

Germany’s general manager Oliver Bierhoff says the remarkable 4-4 draw with Sweden on Tuesday must serve as a lesson to his side in their quest for World Cup glory.

Germany threw away a 4-0 lead in the final half hour of the game to claim only a point which still keeps them three points clear at the top of qualifying Group C.

However, opponents Sweden have the chance to join them with a win in their game in hand.

“We have got to face up to this painful situation and not just go back to normality,” said Bierhoff.

“You always learn from negative experiences. I hope that we do better in the future and that we become more complete through further experiences.”

Bierhoff refused to pin the blame on any one individual, but said it was a collective failure not to hold on to all three points, having established such a lead.

“We have experienced players in our side who play in Europe for their clubs,” he said.

“We just have to learn to keep a level head in difficult moments — we failed to do that today.

“We made the same mistake in the final 30 minutes that we did against Austria. We played the ball back to Manuel (Neuer) rather than keeping possession or, like at the very end, taking it to the corner flag.

“But I realised during my career and in my life that these ugly experiences help you in the long term. I hope this was an important lesson and that it is clear to the players they will never make these mistakes again.”

Sweden’s TV4 was trying to look on the bright side after Tuesday’s events having sold the broadcast rights for the game.

TV4 bought all the rights to Sweden’s World Cup qualifiers, only to sell the rights to broadcast the Germany game to rivals Kanal 5, a decision that backfired spectacularly as Sweden produced one of the greatest sporting comebacks of all time against the Germans.

“Business is business. I do not think anyone could have predicted how the situation would develop,” TV4’s head of football Emir Osmanbergovic said.

“With the game fresh in the memory it feels particularly hard, but rights come and go. We and other channels will continue to buy and sell rights. Sometimes you’re lucky, sometimes you have bad luck.”