Germany suffers six defeats in a year for first time

Antoine Griezmann's brace consigned Germany to a sixth defeat of the year, something it has never suffered before.

Germany sunk to a sixth loss in a calendar year for the first time in its history.

Germany's 2-1 Nations League defeat away to world champion France on Tuesday was its sixth loss in a single calendar year - the first time ever that it has happened.

It has been a woeful year for Germany's national team, with off-field controversy and a shambolic World Cup campaign attracting headlines for the wrong reason.

In terms of results, Saturday's 3-0 defeat at Netherlands was the worst, as it was comfortably swept aside by Ronald Koeman's young team.But two of its most crucial defeats came in Russia, as it lost 1-0 to Mexico in its opening group game and was then dumped out before the knockout phase as a result of a 2-0 reverse at the hands of South Korea.

READ | France 2 Germany 1: Griezmann delivers Low blow as Les Bleus reign in Paris

Its other two losses were to Brazil and Austria in pre-World Cup friendlies.

Although it ended up losing to France on Tuesday, Germany's performance for the first hour was positive – it just failed to maintain its level and was ultimately punished by a contentious penalty.

Nevertheless, it consigned Germany to successive competitive defeats for the first time since 2000.