Hrubesch words inspire Germany

Both coaches pointed to Benedikt Höwedes' 59th-minute opener – the defender heading in a free-kick from former FC Schalke 04 team-mate Mesut Özil – as the pivotal moment of Germany's victory against Finland in Group B. "As soon as we scored we were Germany again," said Horst Hrubesch, whose side had been largely second best until then but were swiftly 2-0 up as Ashkan Dejagah struck to end Finland's hopes of a semi-final place. Markku Kanerva was keen to stress it has not ended their campaign, however, adding: "We came here to play three Grand Slam finals; we have lost two matches on a tie-break, but still we have chances on Monday against Spain."

Horst Hrubesch, Germany coach
I knew it would be tough against Finland. We started poorly, lacking any real movement and inviting them to come at us, which they did. I reminded the players at half-time that this isn't how Germany play. So we changed a few things, tried to improve our movement, running and speed things up. The goal was pivotal because as soon as we scored we were Germany again. From then our movement was good and we were strong. It's a shame we couldn't go on and get a third because that could be important – we want to progress as group winners. I'm confident we can progress when we play England on Monday.

Markku Kanerva, Finland coach
I'm left disappointed again and we cannot go through from this group. We can take lots from our first-half performance and were on top until they scored. Then, critically, we lost our shape and they scored the second, decisive goal. It was always going to be hard to come back from there. We made some substitutions and they showed some promise. Still, we have shown that we can get into the right places but that's not enough – you need to take those chances. We had the better possession in the game but that is not enough either. You have to go on. That's one thing we have to improve for the Spain game. We have to defend set-pieces better too – they punished us from set-pieces again.

We've done well against teams at a high level and confidence has grown in the squad throughout the tournament. Against Spain we want to win. I'll use tennis terms now – we came here to play three Grand Slam finals; we have lost two matches on a tie-break, but still we have chances on Monday against Spain. It would be a huge win for my team. I've been pleased with our defence, those set-pieces aside, and our possession overall. But our finishing, our lack of penetration has been disappointing.

Benedikt Höwedes, Germany defender and man of the match
We had problems going forward in the first half, but that all changed after the interval and the team really got going, especially with the introduction of Patrick Ebert. The coach really found the right words at half-time and changed things to make us quicker, better and instil more movement into our attacking play. I played with Mesut Özil in the youth side at Schalke – we had a good understanding then and still seem to have it as I think that was apparent on the pitch today. Overall it doesn't matter how we win, just that we've won. Now we're closer to the semi-finals.