‘Show you’re better than Messi’

Joachim Low has revealed the advice he gave to Mario Gotze before the Germany midfielder scored the winning goal in the World Cup final.

Gotze entered the match shortly before the 90 minutes were up and with the end of extra time approaching, netted the only goal of the game to give his side victory over Argentina.

Speaking after the match, Low shared with the Press the last comments he made to Gotze before he joined the fray.

“He’s the miracle boy, can always decide matches,” Low said, according to AS.

“I told him, ‘show the world you’re better than [Lionel] Messi and you can decide the World Cup.’ I had a good feeling for him.

“From the beginning we knew we wouldn’t only have 11 players, but 23. There were situations for everyone to contribute.

“We’ve seen this in the final. Argentina were tired but we had people like Andre Schurrle and Gotze.”

Real Madrid’s Sami Khedira was to start the final but had to pull out after suffering an injury in the warm-up, Low saying that the decision was taken not to risk his fitness.

“During the warm-up he was having problems and felt pain. In the locker room he told me he needed treatment and therefore we decided not to take any chances,” Low confirmed.

“I didn’t want to have to replace a player early in the game.

Low went on to reflect on the development of German football that he says has led to this victory.

“We have been focused for 55 days. We started this whole project 10 years ago and this is the result of the work done,” he continued.

“We’ve advanced so far and finally we’ve made the jump we needed. We were the best team in seven games and the first European team to win in South America and in a country as football mad as Brazil.

“There are all these heavy emotions and then an emotional slump. But this is forever.

“Before the game I told them they had to give more than they had ever given because they wanted to do something that had never been done.

“In recent years we have been developing our own playing system. Coaches who have had Bayern Munich have improved our national team.

“Spain in recent tournaments have been the superior team and can keep playing good football. It would be wrong to say otherwise.”

Tags Argentina Germany Joachim Low Lionel Messi Mario Gotze World Cup 2014
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