Löw still sees room for improvement for Germany after thrashing Latvia
Germany taught Latvia a lesson in their last warm-up friendly before the Euros, but Joachim Löw wasn't happy with everything he saw.
Germany coach Joachim Löw saw a lot of positives in his side's 7-1 friendly victory over Latvia on Tuesday.
However, one week before Germany kick off the Euros against France, the 61-year-old still thinks his team can improve in certain areas.
"There were many things that we did well, and we had a lot of chances. We had discussed several things that we still needed to improve on. During the first half, we had a lot of pace in attack, made good runs and pressed hard. Our tempo dropped off a bit in the second half. We still need to increase our intensity so that it extends over the full 90 minutes," commented Löw in a post-match interview and added:
"Our finishing was more clinical tonight. That's been a topic that's come up often over the last months, and was an area where we made things hard for ourselves. Being more clinical, both on offence and defence is what we need. We wanted to find ways to break through their defence, against an opponent that was playing quite deep. Today, we did better at this than we have in some other games, which is what you need in order to find a way through.
"We could have defended better on the throw-in that led to their goal. Those are the kinds of situations where we lose focus for a moment and that's exactly what our opponents at the EUROs will seek to take advantage of. We need to be focused over the full 90 minutes. I don't want to see us concede off a throw-in. Today, it was important for us to gain match practice. I don't know yet if we will go with the same team against France. Several of the players will definitely be included, that's for sure."