Germany Under-21 coach Horst Hrubesch has called for calm after his side s humbling exit from the European Under-21 Championship following a 5-0 semi-final thrashing against Portugal.
Hrubesch s men were totally outplayed in Olomouc as they slumped to a first defeat in 15 competitive games, with midfielder Emre Can quick to brand it a shameful result for the 2009 winners.
Hrubesch, though, was not as forthcoming as Can in slamming his players.
We shouldn t have to start from scratch, said the former Hamburg striker.
The lads are realists enough to know that there are days like the 7-1 win for the Germany senior side in Brazil [at last year s World Cup], where everything goes right, and others where it doesn t quite go as planned. There are days like this. We experienced that for ourselves [on Saturday].
I ve experienced it often enough during my career.
We shouldn t measure everything and think that we’ll win every tournament.
Portugal s reward for an emphatic display against Germany is a final showdown with Sweden in Prague on Tuesday, the two sides having played out a 1-1 draw against each other in the group stage.
