Despite getting a consolation goal in the 89th minute, Germany coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg claimed that her team’s 2-1 loss to Colombia on Sunday was solely their own fault.

Alexandra Popp, the captain of Germany, scored a late penalty to equalize Linda Caicedo’s earlier goal, but Manuela Vanegas of Colombia scored the game-winning header from a corner in stoppage time.

“It just mustn’t happen that in literally the last minute you allow the opponent to transition into attack,” Voss-Tecklenburg told reporters.

“I think you have to play deep then, I don’t think that we should have acted like this.

“And that’s where we need to learn our lessons, we needed to focus on ending the game 1-1 but I think my team rather tried to win 2-1.

“We need to be smarter than that, we need to think of the result.

“Because of our goal difference, with a draw, we would have still been first (in the group) which would have been good for us mentally.”

If the two-time world champions defeat winless South Korea in their final Group H match on Thursday in Brisbane, they would still likely go to the round of 16.

Voss-Tecklenburg rejected a comparison to Germany’s men leaving the tournament in the group stage last year in Qatar and said she was not concerned that her side might not go to the knockout rounds for the first time in a Women’s World Cup.

“I think the situation is quite different because it is in our hands,” she said.

“This is what we’re going to work on and we will try to improve things a little further. South Korea is a different opponent. They won’t let us win, obviously.

“But we’ll go on the pitch and try and be clear and play our game against South Korea and obviously we will try to win it.”