Noah Awuku scored a late goal to help Germany beat Costa Rica 2-1 in their opening Group C fixture of the U17 World Cup played at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium in Goa, on Saturday evening. Though the Deutschers earned three points, Christian Wuck was not in the best of moods after the game.
"I am satisfied with result, not performance. The first 10 minutes were very nervous. Every player on pitch made mistakes and Costa Rica had big chances. After that we had many good chances. I know the (German) players. Normally they convert all chances. Today we lacked that," said the coach of the winning side.
As Germany next face Iran on Tuesday, who have the experience of playing in Goa before when they finished runners-up at the 2016 AFC U16 Championship. "It is very important for us to sleep and rest and to drink...only water, not beer. We have to look at the next game against Iran, to look at what was not so good today. Against Iran, it's another game as they have an advantage because they know the weather in Goa," he stated.
On Arp's celebration that was dedicated to the injured Kilian Ludewig who left Thursday's training session with a heavily bandaged knee, Wuch added, "It was to tell him (Ludewig) that he is an important part of the team. He got injured and has to return back."
Meanwhile, the Costa Rica coach Breansse Camacho felt that his boys failed to capitalise against their German counterparts. "We put a lot of pressure in the first minutes but they scored first. We kept on trying but the German team kept on putting pressure on us. In the end the problem was that overall we didn't take our chances," he reasoned.
"My players were better than Germany in some parts of the match. It's very hard to lose a match in the 89th minute. We actually analysed Germany but couldn't capitalise. Germany were physically very strong."
Both of the goals conceded by the Los Ticos were a result of defensive lapses, but the coach has backed his boys. "We worked to avoid mistakes but that can happen especially when you playing at the U17 level. It was a good experience for players in future. Now we need to support the players to improve their self-confidence and improve the performance in the next matches," he concluded.