By Nicholas P. Brown
EAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey, June 25 (Reuters) - Germany manager Julian Nagelsmann on Thursday was stoic after his team lost their final match of the World Cup group stage to Ecuador, saying they were ready to look ahead to the knockout round.
Germany, who had already qualified, were beaten despite taking an early lead through a Leroy Sane goal. Germany will play one of the eight best third-place teams on Monday at Boston Stadium in the round of 32.
"We have to learn from (the loss)
and improve, but we also have to look forward," Nagelsmann told reporters. "On Monday it's important that we start well."
Nagelsmann said the team have to "be more calm and more active in certain situations" to avoid squandering leads. "When you have such a good start and take the lead you have to be patient to find the spaces to build," he said. "Today we lost a little bit of control after the lead."
Sane, whose earlier inconsistency had provoked criticism from some observers, scored his first goal of the World Cup in the second minute. "I was very happy," Nagelsmann said. "He had a good position for the goal. He really did a good job preparing."
The manager made several changes in the match, including substituting midfielder Aleksandar Pavlovic at halftime and midfielder Felix Nmecha in the 64th minute.
However, Nagelsmann stopped short of criticising either's performance.
"That’s the problem as a coach - you bring one in, you let one go," he said. "Felix and Pavlo did very well, they gave us a good start for the match... I did not plan to bench any one of them."
He was non-committal about what Monday's starting lineup might look like. "We will look at the training session on Sunday and make a new decision... and we'll see who will start then," he said.
(Reporting by Nicholas P. BrownEditing by Christian Radnedge)
