June 21 – The sense of crisis surrounding Euro 2024 hosts Germany has intensified after they fell to a second straight friendly defeat in a 2-0 home loss to Colombia on Tuesday, the latest setback less than a year before the tournament.
Luis Diaz’s 54th-minute header and Juan Cuadrado’s penalty in the 82nd gave the visitors their first ever victory over the Germans, who were booed off at the end.
Germany needed two late goals to draw 3-3 last week with Ukraine before losing to Poland. The four-time world champions have now won just one of their last five matches since their shock World Cup group stage exit in December.
Coach Hansi Flick, who took over in 2021, is under mounting pressure and said his players were lacking in confidence. They have won only three of 11 games this season under Flick, an ultimately meaningless win over Costa Rica at the World Cup, and two friendly victories over Peru and Oman.
“There are things that we wanted to try but they backfired,” he said. “We have to analyse it, draw our lessons. This is a cycle that we need to break through. We are convinced we have a good team and good players.”
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1734846223labto1734846223ofdlr1734846223owedi1734846223sni@w1734846223ahsra1734846223w.wer1734846223dna1734846223