No crisis here, says Germany boss Low

Three months and one day ago Jogi Low was celebrating becoming a world champion.

The term crisis still seems a little over the top but, without putting a dampener on such a fantastic result from Ireland’s point of view, Germany were well below par in Gelsenkirchen last night.

Toni Kroos’s goal came from their 17th attempt — such profligacy was nowhere to be seen in Brazil — but it was their defensive slackness and inability to close out the game which frustrated the manager more.

“From our point of view it’s extremely annoying not to have won the game,” Low said. “Ireland had one single chance in the very final second and managed to equalise. On the other hand, if anybody is to blame it can only be ourselves.

“We lost possession far too easily in the final stages and there were too many misplaced passes.

“We also passed back to [Manuel] Neuer too often and he then just kicked them back. We showed a lot of nervousness in the final five minutes of the game and conceded too many chances to let them rise again.

“It’s always difficult to prevent a cross from being swung in. Maybe we could have prevented it but for a split second Hummels lost their player out of his eye, he slipped buy and managed to score with the tip of his foot.”

As for the dreaded World Cup hangover, he refuted claims they are buckling under the additional pressure of being the world’s best.

“No we’re not [suffering]. It doesn’t matter if we’re world champions or not. There is always pressure in the German shirt. That has not changed.”

After failing to score with 27 attempts against Poland and only managing one goal here, Low also rejected claims he needs to bring new attacking blood into his squad.

“We created fewer chances today but do we need to act accordingly by calling in other players? I don’t think so. We know what quality players we have.

“Generally speaking I think it was expected we would fall into this post-World Cup hole. Our players are still knackered — it was still to be expected that players need longer to get back to their usual selves, both mentally and physically speaking. There’s a little bit missing still.”