Mesut Ozil has leapt to the defence of Germany's performances at Euro 2012 this summer.

Joachim Low's side had been widely tipped to at least reach the final in Kiev.

However, they were knocked out at the semi-final stage by Italy on Thursday night, which has sparked some negative publicity.

"All this discussion just for one narrow defeat," the Real Madrid midfielder told Welt am Sonntag. "We could have scored three goals in the opening stages of the match and now the coach is meant to be able to prevent that?

"Since I have been involved, we have received lots of praise, particularly from abroad, and now everything is supposed to be wrong?

"We should not only look at single results. We have won 15 games in a row with this team. I am completely against making things out to be bad. We have been in four semi-finals and that is a great achievement."

Ozil scored one goal during his nation's campaign in Poland and Ukraine.