Low lauds 'excellent' Stindl after Germany draw

Joachim Low heaped praise on Germany's Lars Stindl for his "excellent performance" after helping to secure a point against Chile at the Confederations Cup.

Germany head coach Low lauded Stindl's calmness, confidence and maturity following the Borussia Monchengladbach player's 41st-minute equaliser, which cancelled out Alexis Sanchez's opener in Kazan on Thursday.

It was Stindl's second goal of the tournament, having also struck against Australia, as Germany edged closer to the semi-finals.

And Low told reporters: "Lars showed an excellent performance. He's great at finding openings.

"Even though he's more of a box-to-box player, I put him right up front because he's great at defending the ball and passing it on and he often broke through the defensive lines.

"He's been absolutely convincing for us. He has a certain number of years of footballing experience and he knows how to maintain his calm and confidence. He's a mature personality, never nervous. An excellent player."

#Löw: "The team showed some great resistance and put up a solid fight with a healthy dose of physicality." #DieMannschaft #ConfedCup #GERCHI pic.twitter.com/XgjCq89Eoi

— Germany (@DFB_Team_EN) June 22, 2017

Chile and Germany are level on four points after two matches in Group B, three points clear of Cameroon and Australia.

Copa America titleholders Chile moved towards claiming outright position atop the table when Sanchez – who became the country's all-time leading scorer – broke the deadlock in the sixth minute.

Stindl, however, restored parity for the world champions approaching half-time as he slid in to convert from inside the six-yard box.

"I saw a very intense match that was really marked by very strategic play. We were able to live up to the expectations we set out," Low said. 

"We were very disciplined over the 90 minutes and the key was to have a good defensive line. We demonstrated that, even though we conceded a goal.

"Even though this is a young and inexperienced team, they really played at a very high level."

Low, who did not make any substitutions, added: "They were working very well and I expected a kind of resilience. I could say they were running a lot and I didn't have the impression that there was any player lagging behind. So I still think we had more at the end than Chile."

Discussing a period of heavy Chile pressure in the opening 45 minutes, Low said: "I didn't have the impression our players were 'lost' in the first half.

"They were maybe a bit nervous in the first 10 minutes but we were able to recover and then our goal was excellent. It was kind of a model goal scored out of a couple of passes, diagonally into the channel and a wonderful cut-back.

"When you see a team playing like that over many years, the fact that our team at moments was nervous, I think you have to accept that. But I thought our defensive action was excellent.

"It was a hard match but very fair. We won that last match in Stuttgart but we had much more difficulty in controlling the match. We were better today."