Germany manager Julian Nagelsmann lamented his side for committing "tactical suicide" as they fell to a 2-1 defeat to Ecuador.
Leroy Sane gave Germany the perfect start by netting after two minutes but Nilson Angulo equalised seven minutes later, Gonzalo Plata scored the winner in the 77th minute to secure Ecuador third place in Group E, and one of the eight third place additional places to progress to the Round of 32.
"We got off to a great start," Nagelsmann said. "Unfortunately, right after scoring, we started committing tactical suicide with our positioning. That makes things difficult.
"Ecuador had everything to play for, and you could tell — they had their foot on the gas. But I also can't say that any of my players didn't give it their all. That's too simplistic."
Germany now head into the last 32, with Nagelsmann calling for improvements from his team as they begin the knockouts.
"Defeat is never good, not even in a game where you can't lose top spot," the coach said.
"We'll learn our lessons and go on. We have to learn from it and improve, but we also have to look forward.
"We won a lot of matches, we lost one, and on Monday it's important to start well and give it everything to get to the next round."
