Flick rues ‘too many mistakes’ as Germany draw again

Germany head coach Hansi Flick said his side made “too many mistakes” as they were forced to settle for another Nations League draw in Hungary on Saturday.

Die Mannschaft were held to their third consecutive 1-1 stalemate in the competition after an early Hungary goal from Zsolt Nagy was quickly cancelled out by Jonas Hofmann.

Having also tied 1-1 in a friendly with the Netherlands in March, it is the first time ever that four successive Germany games have had the same scoreline.

Flick told the national team’s official website after the game that he expected a tough encounter, but rued mistakes from his team, who were unable to create many clear chances.

“Ahead of the game, I said that this would be our second-toughest match after the England game,” he said. “Hungary were a very compact unit, and we just didn’t manage to play forward convincingly enough; we made too many mistakes.

“That said, we’re still in a process of development. We need to make sure we learn our lessons from this game. We lacked a bit of conviction.”

Germany remain third in Group A3 after England and Italy played out a 0-0 draw, and they host the Azzurri at Borussia-Park on Tuesday still looking for their first win of the tournament.

“I won’t go on and start making any excuses: we wanted the three points today, and everyone in the dressing room is disappointed that we didn’t get them,” Flick added.

“Now, we have two days to recover – we’ll play the eleven that we think is the most match-fit against Italy.”

Captain Manuel Neuer made two excellent saves in the game to deny Hungary, who despite only having 32.9 per cent possession managed seven shots on target to Germany’s one.

Neuer expressed his disappointment at two more points dropped but believes the team are on a “journey” and still hope to lift the World Cup in Qatar later this year.

“We’re all disappointed, of course,” the big stopper said. “We lacked determination and found it difficult to push forward. You do have to say that Hungary are a tough side to play against, though.

“We’ve always said that we’re developing – we’re on a long journey to lifting the World Cup. We want to show what we can do once again when we play Italy.”