Under-pressure Hansi Flick 'brutally disappointed' after Germany thrashed at home by Japan

Germany manager Hansi Flick is fighting to save his job after his team were thrashed 4-1 in a friendly match at home to Japan.

It was Germany's fourth defeat in their last five outings and former Bayern Munich coach Flick has won just 12 of his 25 games in charge since replacing Joachim Low in August 2021.

Flick, who had started his stint with an eight-game winning run, will now have to prepare his team for an even tougher task against 2022 World Cup finalists France on Tuesday.

“We will prepare well and recover. We chose such games because we want to play against the best,” Flick said.

“Today we were not in a position to beat this team. We will prepare for France, give the team courage. That's the daily work. I can understand the criticism.

“We have to go through this together. We are one team. We lost heavily today but we have to shake it off and be different against France.”

Saturday's loss in Wolfsburg was their worst since a 6-0 defeat against Spain in the Nations League in 2020.

Junya Ito opened the scoring for Japan after 11 minutes, only for Bayern Munich forward Leroy Sane to quickly hit back for Germany.