Mesut Ozil has defended Germany's performance in Euro 2012 after negative publicity following their exit.
Midfielder believes negative reporting is misplaced
Mesut Ozil has defended Germany's performance in Euro 2012 after negative publicity following their exit.
Joachim Low's side lost 2-1 to Italy in the semi-finals, prompting criticism from the German media as the wait for a first major trophy since 1996 goes on.
But Ozil believes the negative reporting is misplaced after the team set a new world record of 15 consecutive wins in competitive matches leading up to the Italy defeat.
The Real Madrid midfielder told
Welt am Sonntag newspaper: "All this discussion just for one narrow defeat...we could have scored three goals in the opening stages of the match and now the coach is meant to be able to prevent that?
"Since I have been involved (with Germany), we have received lots of praise, particularly from abroad, and now everything is supposed to be wrong?"
Main memory
Ozil feels Germany's record-breaking run of victories should be the main memory of Euro 2012 and not their defeat to Italy.
"We should not only look at single results," he said. "We have won 15 games in a row with this team.
"To win a title, a lot of things have got to come together and that includes having luck.
"I am completely against making things out to be bad. We have been in four semi-finals and that is a great achievement.
"Of course we also want to win a title and we are doing all we can for it, but it is not so easy."
