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Germany head coach Joachim Loew said that his side must ‘crank things up’ which means fix things up before facing Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo on Saturday’s Euro 2020 after an opening defeat against France. The dutch lost 1-0 to the world champions France in their Group F in Munich on Tuesday, courtesy of a Mats Hummels own goal.
The scoreline flattered at the home side as Kylian Mbappe and Karim Benzema had second-half goals disallowed, while Adrien Rabiot hit the post for the French. Germany’s defence needs improvement with having leaked 20 goals in their previous 13 games, but the main concern is upfront, where Thomas Mueller, Serge Gnabry and Kai Havertz mustered just one shot between them.
The coach said, “It’s up to us to crank things up in the next two or three days. We have to look to improve because we need a goal or two.” He added, “The substitutes didn’t get into the game as well as we hoped, but France are strong. They sat very deep after the lead and didn’t give us much space.” Toni Kroos said, “When you lose the first game and have three group matches, the pressure is high — there is no need to discuss it.” Lastly, the Portuguese coach Fernando Santos said, “Now it’s about Germany and we must keep improving. ‘kill or be killed,’ as ex-Portugal coach Luiz Felipe used to say.”