Loew gracious in defeat, says Spain deserved to win

Spain had more of the ball and created more chances than the three-time former champions, with Torres also hitting the bar and Lehmann pulling off a stunning one-handed reaction save to divert a ricochet off Christoph Metzelder away for a corner.

And Loew had no complaints about the final result.

“I want to congratulate the Spanish coach (Luis Aragones) and the Spanish team. I think we have to recognise the high quality of Spain’s players, they played very well throughout the whole tournament,” he said.

“They created more chances than us and they deserved to win.”

However, Loew was pleased with his own side, claiming that reaching the final was in itself a good achievement.

“Immediately after the match you feel disappointed that we didn’t win but we can be satisfied with the tournament as a whole,” he said.

“The team has performed very well over the 45 days we spent together, we had a lot of fun, I’ve really enjoyed it but we’re very ambitious.

“It was an excellent match but Spain were consistently good throughout the tournament, they played to a high level and they deserve to be European Champions.

“For us it’s a good performance to reach the final. It’s been a quite extraordinary journey, our players fought hard and they did their best.” On the eve of the final Germany had an injury scare concerning captain Michael Ballack and he was thought to be a serious doubt for the title match before taking his place in the starting XI.

Loew was asked if the decision to play Ballack had been a mistake but he sidestepped the issue with a stepover that Cristiano Ronaldo would have been proud of.

“This afternoon when he and the physicians who had been looking after him told me he would play I was glad,” said Loew.

“It was important to have him on the pitch. I don’t want to comment on individual players but it was important to have him there.

“He’s our captain, he did a lot of special things during this tournament, he was the leader of our team and he represented the team and Germany very well.”

The former assistant to Jurgen Klinsmann, who was Germany’s coach at the World Cup on home soil two years ago, complained that it is difficult for Germany to match the technical level of Spanish players.

He alluded to the fact that the relative disparity in the strength of the two countries’ club sides and domestic leagues makes a difference.

“Technically the Spanish have a lot of quality. Their players are always playing in the Champions League, at the highest possible level, and challenging there right to the end,” he moaned.

“In their training the Spanish are highly committed to quality and you can sense that in their youth teams.

“When it comes to keeping possession they are extremely strong. During the first 15 minutes we did quite well but then we lost our rhythm and Spain became quite dangerous and when they have the ball they are really dangerous.”