2 years ago
After Germany was forced to settle for another Nations League tie in Hungary on Saturday, head coach Hansi Flick stated his team made "too many mistakes."
After an early Hungary goal from Zsolt Nagy was promptly cancelled out by Jonas Hofmann, Die Mannschaft were held to their third consecutive 1-1 draw in the competition.
It's the first time Germany has ever played four consecutive games with the same scoreline, following a 1-1 draw with the Netherlands in a friendly in March.
After the game, Flick told the national team's official website that he expected a tough match, but he was disappointed with his team's blunders, as they were unable to create many clear chances.
"I indicated before the game that after the England game, this would be our second-toughest encounter," he remarked. "We simply didn't manage to play forward convincingly enough; we committed too many errors. Hungary was a really compact squad, and we simply didn't manage to play forward convincingly enough.
"However, we are still in the early stages of development. We must ensure that we have learned our lessons from this game. We were lacking in conviction."
Germany is in in third place in Group A3 after a 0-0 stalemate between England and Italy, and will visit the Azzurri at Borussia-Park on Tuesday in search of their first win of the tournament.
"I'm not going to make any excuses: we wanted three points today, and everyone in the locker room is sad that we didn't get them," Flick continued.
"We'll play the eleven that we believe is the most match-fit against Italy after we have two days to recover."
Despite only having 32.9 percent control, Hungary got seven attempts on target to Germany's one. Captain Manuel Neuer made two spectacular stops in the game to deny Hungary.
Neuer acknowledged his unhappiness with the team's loss of two more points, but believes they are on a "journey" and still have a chance to win the World Cup in Qatar later this year.
"Of course, we're all disappointed," the huge stopper admitted. "We lacked determination and struggled to move forward. Hungary, on the other hand, is a difficult team to play against.
"We've always maintained that we're improving — we're still a long way from winning the World Cup. When we play Italy, we want to show what we're capable of."
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