According to Bild, the German team suffered a major setback after losing 2-1 to Ecuador in their final group stage match. Podolski made clear comments on the program "Kroos & Kroos: World Cup Perspective," stating that the 2014 FIFA World Cup champions might benefit from a loss.

"Perhaps such a loss is a good thing. A harsh wake-up call. So everyone will say: it's time to wake up now. Perhaps such a loss is beneficial, allowing everyone to go back to their rooms and think. Maybe the training methods need to be different now, and the commitment needs to be stronger. (...)"

He also emphasized: "There's no need to say everything is lost now. We should encourage these lads. Stay positive and hope they can go all the way."

Kroos (36), also a 2014 FIFA World Cup champion, analyzed the German team's poor performance and pointed out the current problems: "In the past few major tournaments, we often seemed to have a noose around our necks. But not this time, even though we haven't played much better. In the FIFA World Cup, you probably only get one chance to make a mistake, and we've already used it."

He continued: "But now you can no longer afford to be complacent. From now on, every poorly played match means elimination – because if we don't perform well, we will be eliminated. In the past, we also had bad matches, like against Algeria, but we could still win despite a poor performance. I think this team no longer has that ability."

Kroos identified two key issues: "Someone asked me what it takes to go further, and I said two things: it must be difficult to play against us. We need to defend well and defend more aggressively. We can't do that yet. We also need Musiala and Wirtz to be at their best, but we don't have that now. If these two things don't change, the team won't go far."

According to the schedule, if Germany defeats Paraguay on Monday, they will face France in the Round of 16 on July 4 in Philadelphia. Kroos also encouraged the German team: "But we have already shown that we can play differently. I still maintain my opinion: if we really face France, as long as everything comes together, we can beat them."

This also gives hope: the German team has won two of their last three matches against Les Bleus.

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