Midfielder Mesut Ozil admits he does not understand why Germany's exit from Euro 2012 received such negative publicity with even the future of coach Joachim Low cast in doubt.
Germany lost 2-1 to Italy in the semi-finals having set a new world record of 15 consecutive wins in competitive matches, yet the German media have been strongly critical of the national team's performance in Poland and Ukraine.
Ozil, who was on the receiving end of much of the criticism, told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper the negative reporting is misplaced.
"All this discussion just for one narrow defeat...we could have scored three goals in the opening stages of the match and now the coach is meant to be able to prevent that?" said the Real Madrid man.
"Since I have been involved (with Germany), we have received lots of praise, particularly from abroad, and now everything is supposed to be wrong?"
Ozil feels Germany's record-breaking run of victories should be the main memory of Euro 2012 and not their defeat to Italy.
"We should not only look at single results," he said. "We have won 15 games in a row with this team," he said.
"To win a title, a lot of things have got to come together and that includes having luck.
"I am completely against making things out to be bad. We have been in four semi-finals and that is a great achievement.
"Of course we also want to win a title and we are doing all we can for it, but it is not so easy."
