Loew laments profligate Germany

8 September 2012 05:54

Germany coach Joachim Loew is worried by his side's lack of proficiency in front of goal after a 3-0 victory over Faroe Islands.

The hosts dominated proceedings in Hannover, but could only muster up three goals, with Miroslav Klose, Thomas Muller and Marco Reus all guilty of squandering chances.

It was a familiar story for Loew's side, who were uncharacteristically wasteful in front of goal in their recent defeats to Argentina and Italy, and the 52-year-old is adamant that his troops must improve.

"I know that it was our biggest victory ever against the Faroes, but I think we have to be criticised here because we had many chances, but not enough goals," he said.

"In some situations we could do better. We sometimes don't do the little things correctly. Faroe Islands are not the benchmark against which we measure our other opponents in the group."

Mesut Oezil, who scored two excellent second-half goals to make sure of the three points, agreed with his coach's criticism, but was content with the result.

"We put pressure on them from the start and we wanted to get an early goal, and we had many scoring chances in the first half," he said.

"We gave everything, we deserved to win and can be satisfied with our result. We have taken the first step."

Mario Gotze, who scored the opening goal, saluted the Faroes' resolute performance in the face of adversity.

"They stood very deep, and it was difficult to break through them. We should have done better in one or two situations, but we did well for the goals," he said.

Germany continue their qualifying campaign against Austria on Tuesday.