Hansi Flick "really proud" of Germany players for response against Spain

Germany head coach Hansi Flick has praised "the mentality of the team" following Sunday's 1-1 draw with Spain at the 2022 World Cup.

A defeat for the four-time world champions would have left them in an extremely difficult position in terms of reaching the last-16 stage of the competition.

Alvaro Morata sent La Roja ahead in the 62nd minute of the contest, but Germany levelled the scores through Niclas Fullkrug in the 83rd minute.

DFB-Team, who lost their tournament opener against Japan, are bottom of Group E on one point ahead of their final match in the section against Costa Rica on Thursday.

Germany would qualify for the last-16 stage of the competition if they overcome Costa Rica and Spain beat Japan in the other match in the section.

© Reuters

Flick has said that "the team needs more self-confidence", but he was delighted with how his side responded to conceding the opening goal against Spain.

"I think that the team needs more self-confidence," Flick told reporters. "I think that things start to develop when you start to win but maybe this will give us a boost to have the self-confidence to get more goals. We need the determination of Niclas Fullkrug.

"It was a highly interesting football game. Every football fan got their money's worth today. Big compliment to the team for fighting until the end.

"But we only took the first step, against Costa Rica we want to take the second step and reach the round of 16.

© Reuters

"We get on well together as a team, even though you read different things. What the team did today was amazing. I'm really proud. We faced a team that is great in terms of football and we played them on an equal footing. The mentality of the team was outstanding."

Meanwhile, Germany captain Ilkay Gundogan told BBC Sport: "The finish for our goal was unbelievable. We needed that. Now it's down to the last game. It's crazy the World Cup. You know it's going to be dramatic with ups and downs."

Germany won the World Cup in 2014, but they failed to make it out of the group stage in Russia four years ago, while they only reached the last-16 stage of Euro 2020.