Former World Cup winner Philipp Lahm says Germany need to reinvent themselves after a dismal World Cup campaign where they were dumped out in the group stage.
Despite a 4-2 victory in their final Group E match against Costa Rica, Hansi Flick's side exited Qatar 2022 after Japan beat Spain, ensuring both qualified instead for the last 16.
It marks the second successive World Cup since Lahm guided them to victory at Brazil 2014 where Germany have failed to reach the knockout stage.
Reflecting on their exit, the former Bayern Munich man did not doubt his nation's spirit, but pinned a lack of game management and intelligence upon them as key to their downfall.
"In all three group matches Germany showed passion, commitment and aggression," he wrote in The Guardian. "The opponents sensed there were players with quality.
"But there was a lack of strategy and order; it was never clear who would take on which role. Hansi Flick's team were not organised in Qatar."
Lahm pointed to Argentina, another side who struggled after a shock loss to Saudi Arabia, and how they ensured a rigid formation to claw their way back into the tournament.
"Even in that defeat, you could see that Lionel Scaloni's team were dominant because they were organised," he added. "They then locked Mexico and Poland in their half at some point to score goals.
"The superior boxer sets up the knockout. Germany were not able to do that. They failed to control the game. To control a game you have to develop play from the defence and from the centre. That is a law of football.
"Football is all about the details. A team can only solve risk management problems together, in coordination with each other. Argentina are strong at it.
"Germany lack the structure to do this or to play a game that suffocates the opponent, which inevitably results in conceding goals.
"It will be a challenging task to form a team with a view to the European Championship at home in a year-and-a-half. Germany must reinvent themselves."
UK and Ireland bid for Euro 2028 to be unopposed after Turkey withdraw interest
The UK and Ireland will host Euro 2028, subject to final approval from UEFA’s executive committee next week, after Turkey withdrew its interest.
The five-nation bid is now the only option on the table for the finals in five years’ time after Turkey pulled out of contention for the 2028 finals to focus on a joint bid with Italy for Euro 2032.
UEFA will formally announce the hosts for the two tournaments following a meeting of its executive committee in Switzerland next week.
Paul Warne feels win at Blackpool was best display of his Derby tenure
Paul Warne hailed a 3-1 victory at Blackpool as the best display of his year-long Derby tenure as Korey Smith, James Collins and Martyn Waghorn netted for the visitors.
The Rams have now won four of their five away games so far in League One, with only one victory coming at home.
“It’s the proudest I’ve been and probably the best performance since I’ve been here,” Warne said.
“I think away from home I would like 11 speedsters, that’s what I would like in my team. We don’t have 11 speedsters, we have two or three.
“So sometimes away from home you can play counter-attack, you don’t have to have the ball as much, but you have to be deadly when you have it and we have been.
“Our away form has been good. I think we’ve been pretty good at home but we just haven’t taken our chances but tonight we took harder chances than we’ve been creating at home and we’ve missed.”
After a goalless first half, Smith netted in the 54th minute to move Derby ahead, firing Nathaniel Mendez-Laing’s cutback into the top of the net.
Collins put the Rams further in front on 71 minutes only for Blackpool to hit straight back as Kenny Dougall headed home.
The Seasiders were inches away from an equaliser when the in-form Jordan Rhodes headed against the bar from 10 yards out.
Substitute Tom Barkhuizen restored Derby’s momentum, first seeing an attempt cleared off the line before teeing up Waghorn for a simple finish to ensure the victory.
Blackpool manager Neil Critchley said: “I’m disappointed about the result but not too downbeat.
“I thought it was a really good game, two good teams on the pitch. Derby changed their system, gave us an enormous amount of respect in the way they set up and produced the perfect away performance by defending in numbers and playing us on the break. And they produced moments of real quality.
“We played some really good football, I enjoyed our performance in the second half. Goals change games, we started the second half well but they scored.
“We hit the crossbar at 2-1. If that goes in the game is different.
“They scored when we were on top in the second half. We could have defended that better, but our players have shown spirit.
“We’ll play worse than that and win this season.”
Jude Bellingham helps Real Madrid to victory and Bayern Munich hit back to win
Jude Bellingham’s dream start to life at Real Madrid continued as his mesmerising solo goal helped the Spanish giants down Napoli to make it two wins from two in this season’s Champions League.
Having grabbed a last-gasp winner to see off Union Berlin a fortnight ago, Bellingham first teed up Vinicius Junior to score after Leo Ostigard had put Napoli ahead at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.
Bellingham then stole the show as he collected the ball on halfway, drove forward into the area and bulldozed his way through Ostigard before tucking into the corner and although a contentiously-awarded penalty scored by Piotr Zielinski pegged Real back, the visitors won 3-2 following Alex Meret’s own goal.
Victory sent Real top of Group C, where Union Berlin went down to another stoppage-time goal as Andre Castro sealed a 3-2 triumph for Braga, who hit back from 2-0 down to win in the German capital.
Sheraldo Becker’s brace put the hosts in charge but Sikou Niakate and Armindo Bruma drew the Portuguese side level before Castro struck in the fourth minute of time added on to break Union hearts.
Bayern Munich avoided a banana skin after coming from behind to win 2-1 at Copenhagen, with Jamal Musiala and substitute Mathys Tel cancelling out Lukas Lerager’s goal.
The Bundesliga side top Group A, where Manchester United’s stuttering start to the campaign continued after an error-strewn defeat at home to Galatasaray.
Rasmus Hojlund scored a superb second after his opener was cancelled out by Galatasaray’s grinning former United forward Wilfried Zaha, only for Ten Hag’s men to spectacularly unravel.
Kerem Akturkoglu equalised and summer signing Andre Onana’s atrocious pass out straight to Dries Mertens led to a poor Casemiro recovery challenge that saw the Brazil midfielder sent off and a penalty awarded.
The goalkeeper was relieved to see Mauro Icardi strike the spot-kick wide, but he swiftly made amends as United fell to a third Old Trafford loss of the campaign.
It was a forgettable night for Premier League teams as Arsenal lost 2-1 at Lens in Group B. Gabriel Jesus put the Gunners ahead but Adrien Thomasson and Elye Wahi gave Lens all three points.
Jordan Teze’s stoppage-time goal lifted PSV Eindhoven to a 2-2 draw at home to Sevilla, who twice went ahead through Nemanja Gudelj and Youssef En-Nesyri only to be pegged back.
Luuk de Jong’s penalty looked to be vain until Teze popped up in the fifth minute of stoppage time.
Marcus Thuram gave Inter Milan a 1-0 Group D victory over Benfica, while Mikel Oyarzabal and Brais Mendez ushered Real Sociedad to a 2-0 win at Red Bull Salzburg.
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