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The last time Germany entertained England, Sven-Goran Eriksson's men earned a thumping 5-1 win in Munich. Ahead of their friendly clash in Berlin, Eurosport-Yahoo! takes a look at some of the biggest matches in one of football's more unusual rivalries.

Most sporting derbies involve teams separated by adjoining regional borders and a similar weighting of mutual resentment.

But these two great nations are divided by a sea, several western European countries and the mild bemusement of most Germans, who view the Netherlands as their main foe.

England have the better overall record with 14 wins to Germany's 12 and six draws, but Germany have bossed the post-1966 era with 12 wins to six.

Top five England v Germany clashes:

1. England 4-2 West Germany: Wembley Stadium, July 30, 1966.

England's most famous win saw the World Cup hosts lift the Jules Rimet trophy for the first and last time.

English fans, journalists, comedians and minor indie-pop musicians are fond of constantly reminding Germans of the result, of Geoff Hurst's hat-trick and of the 'Russian' linesman, actually Azeri, who allowed Hurst's controversial second goal.

Legend notwithstanding, it was an incredible match. Helmut Haller put West Germany ahead on 12 minutes, but seven minutes later Hurst got a touch on a Bobby Moore free-kick to make it 1-1.

The score remained thus until, with 13 minutes remaining, Martin Peters put England ahead. But Wolfgang Weber scored a dramatic late equaliser to force extra-time, a goal that was heavily contested by England as the ball appeared to strike Karl-Heinz Schnellinger's hand in the build-up.

England bossed the additional half hour though, with Hurst's 101st-minute strike dubious in that the ball arguably bounced on rather than over the line and his last-gasp hat-trick score technically illegal because celebrating fans were already on the pitch.

"They think it's all over: it is now!" said BBC commentator Kenneth Wolstenholme when Hurst smashed the fourth in. While England fans crowed for decades about winning 'two World Wars and one World Cup', Germany have won three of the latter while England remain stalled on that sole triumph.

2. England 0-1 Germany: Wembley, October 7, 2000.

The match that saw Kevin Keegan walk out on England also happened to be the last match at the 'old' Wembley Stadium.

The humiliation was contextual more than anything: in part because England had been terrible in crashing out of that summer's European Championships at the group stage and in part because Germany at that point were a pretty ordinary side.

Dietmar Hamann of Liverpool scored a first-half free-kick to give the Germans an opening win in World Cup qualifying, but it was a terrible game.

It was, however, a turning point for England. Keegan accepted that he wasn't good enough and the FA accepted that no English coach was good enough. Swede Eriksson was appointed and the return fixture will forever be etched in the memories of fans from both sides...

3. Germany 1-5 England: Olympiastadion, Munich, September 1, 2001.

"Heskey! And it's five!!" roared Martin Tyler as Emile Heskey added the finishing touch to a result that stunned the football world and put to bed the defeat at Wembley 11 months previously.

Michael Owen got a hat-trick and Steven Gerrard scored a screamer as England overturned Carsten Jancker's opener and erased memories of the last match between the two.

Truth be told, England weren't that superior to Germany on the night, with the hosts' goalkeeper Oliver Kahn having a particularly bad day at the office.

Until Gerrard made it 2-1 just before half-time both sides had chances to take the lead, but Germany were unable to deal with England's diagonal balls, Heskey's physical approach and Owen's then-searing pace.

England went on to win the group, forcing Germany into the play-offs.

In the World Cup finals, both sides eventually lost to winners Brazil but the result showed that Germany were human and that England a force to be reckoned with in the big games.

4. England 1-1 West Germany AET (West Germany won 4-3 on penalties): Stadio delle Alpi, Turin, June 4, 1990.

One of England's strongest sides crashed out of the World Cup in Italy after a heart-breaking penalty shoot-out that only told half the story.

Paul Gascoigne's tears after he realised he would be suspended for the final probably remain stronger in the memory than the missed penalties of Stuart Pearce and Chris Waddle in a topsy-turvy, emotional match that did much to widen the appeal of the national team to the English public but also to intensify the rivalry between the two sides.

The England team featured the likes of Gazza, Gary Lineker, Peter Beardsley, Peter Shilton, David Platt and Terry Butcher and, despite failing to impress in previous matches in the tournament, they matched the more highly-rated German team and were unlucky to go behind when an Andreas Brehme free-kick took a huge deflection off Paul Parker on the hour mark.

Lineker equalised with 10 minutes remaining but the Germans were almost entitled to win on penalties, with Waddle blazing over to hand them victory.

5. England 1-1 Germany AET (Germany won 6-5 on penalties): Wembley Stadium, June 26, 1996.

The first time England played a unified Germany in a competitive match in the post-war era saw recent tradition continued as England valiantly crashed out on penalties to their efficient adversary.

Terry Venables's exciting, attacking side took a third-minute lead through Alan Shearer, but Stefan Kuntz levelled soon afterwards.

The score somehow remained the same until the end of extra-time, despite a disallowed Germany goal and Gascoigne's famous lunge that saw him miss a certain goal by inches.

The drama of penalties followed and, as ever, Germany scored all six of their efforts with Gareth Southgate suffering the heartbreak of missing a sudden-death spot-kick that was later immortalised in Pizza Hut television adverts.

Join eurosport.yahoo.co.uk for LIVE text commentary and scoring on Wednesday's international friendly action - England face Germany in Berlin, Scotland host Diego Maradona's Argentina, Republic of Ireland entertain Poland, Wales visit Denmark and Northern Ireland play Hungary.

Reda Maher / Eurosport