WE WERE BETTER, BUT FRANCE DESERVED TO GO THROUGH"
Löw: France deserved to make it to the final. I also think that France will beat Portugal. Portugal haven’t been convincing so far. I thought France were good, but we were better.
Question: Did the second goal kill the game off?
Löw: We dominated the match in the second half. If we had taken the lead early we would have had the game in our hands and France wouldn’t have had a chance. The penalty was a shock and I had to calm the players down in the changing room. It was very difficult for us after that as France were strong on the counter. We showed courage and our team did really well all in all.
Question: How will you process everything?
Löw: It’s hard to answer that. We will speak on the phone with the players and coaching staff in two or three days and reflect on how the tournament went. Overall, it was a decent EURO and the team had a really positive energy. The standard was good. It should be a relatively short evaluation as I didn’t notice us making any mistakes.
Question: What did you think of Bastian Schweinsteiger’s performance?
Löw: He won a number of challenges in the first half and did well. I eventually had to take him off in the 70th or 80th minute. His performance was good overall, considering he has been out for a long time.