Int Football - Slick England beat Germany

Eurosport - Thu, 20 Nov 15:43:00 2008

A makeshift England side outplayed Germany in a 2-1 friendly win at the Olympiastadion in Berlin.

FOOTBALL Germany England Terry Upson - 0

Matthew Upson put England ahead with a 23rd-minute finish after Germany keeper Rene Adler failed to deal with a Stewart Downing corner.

The visitors were the better side in an enthralling match, but Joachim Loew's men levelled after a dreadful misunderstanding between captain John Terry and substitute goalkeeper Scott Carson.

But Terry made amends with a late header that gave England their fifth win in a row and second consecutive away victory over Germany.

A win in Germany is always a fillip but England coach Fabio Capello will be particularly pleased that it was managed with a heavily-depleted squad.

England were missing Wayne Rooney, Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard, Theo Walcott, Rio Ferdinand, Ashley Cole, Gary Neville, Wes Brown, David Beckham, Michael Owen, Joe Cole and Owen Hargreaves, but their B-team controlled the opening 45 minutes and limited the hosts - who were also under strength - to half-chances and wooden set-piece routines.

The closest Germany came to scoring was a Piotr Trochowski cross that David James could only parry: the omnipresent Gareth Barry was on hand to sweep up the danger.

Defender Heiko Westermann was left unmarked at one free-kick but headed well over, as did debutant left-back Marvin Compper on a corner soon afterwards.

Capello's side, however, were attacking with verve and pace and should have added to Upson's opener midway through the first half.

Downing started for the first time since his unimpressive showing against Andorra earlier in the season and he was in fine form.

He swung over an inswinging corner from the right that Adler flapped at to allow Upson to poke home from close range.

The Middlesbrough winger then went close with an effort of his own, a long-range drive that forced a smart stop from Adler, while the bubbly Shaun Wright-Phillips fired wide on the follow-up.

Abgonlahor had a debut goal harshly disallowed for offside and caused Germany's tall but slow defence serious problems with his searing pace.

The Aston Villa man has been in scintillating form for his club and showed similar qualities when making the step up to international football.

He worked the channels well, held the ball up cleverly and was willing to run off the shoulders of Per Mertesacker and Westermann in the German defence.

But most impressively given their lack of playing time together, the team worked well as a unit.

Wright-Phillips and Glen Johnson combined smartly on the right, Wayne Bridge continued to prove an able deputy to Ashley Cole for both club and country and Michael Carrick - winning his first cap under Capello - bossed the midfield with clever passing and astute tackling in tandem with Barry.

Jermain Defoe also looked adept in partnering Agbonlahor, but he came off with a calf strain for in-form Tottenham striker Darren Bent, who many had expected to start the match.

A chorus of whistles accompanied Germany as they entered the dressing room at the break, but England had played well and deserved to be more than one up.

Along with the Bent-Defoe change, half-time saw Capello rehabilitate Carson following a horror debut against Croatia last year.

The two substitutions did not immediately pay off.

In England's infamous Euro 2008 qualifying defeat at home to the Croats, Bent missed a sitter and Carson made a mistake to gift Croatia a goal.

A similar sequence of events occurred in Berlin. Just after the hour mark, Barry slipped a brilliant through ball and Bent checked his run perfectly, rounded sub keeper Tim Wiese but slipped as he put the ball wide of the empty net.

And within seconds Germany were level.

A harmless ball was played towards the England box, which Terry attempted to shepherd back to Carson.

The West Brom shot-stopper was slow coming out and allowed substitute Patrick Helmes to finish into the unguarded net for his first international goal.

It was a dreadful error which Terry took the blame for but England kept their heads up and pressed even harder for a winner.

Downing was growing more influential with some excellent deliveries from the left and a low free-kick that Wiese parried.

Agbonlahor had a searing drive well saved by the Bremen goalkeeper while Bent almost broke through on two more occasions.

But England's more gung-ho approach led to Germany finding more openings: Leverkusen man Helmes and Hoffenheim's Compper went close and Carson saved well from Monchengladbach playmaker Marko Marin.

The visitors, though, were still the more positive and entertaining team.

Wright-Phillips was desperately unlucky not to cap off a superb performance with a goal when he thumped a long-range shot off the post after a mazy dribble from halfway.

England's ambition paid off and another good Downing delivery saw Terry ghost in unmarked to send a powerful header in off the post to make amends for the equaliser.

They could have scored more late on but they lacked a pure finisher and were content to play out time and improve their win ratio over Germany to 15:10.

Reda Maher / Eurosport

Comment 190 - 209 of 209

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  1. It seems to be come a lovely tradition that we beat them at the Wembley all the time and then sometimes they beat us at home. Leave the English alone, guys! They have to suffer enought with their national team never winning titles and always going out on penalties so let them have the fun to be proud on one WC and the occasional win over one of the all times greats of football.

    From Gina N, on Fri 21 Nov 10:15AM

  2. Always feels good to beat the Germans especially in their own back yard.We saw the future of English international football last night,i hope Capello saw this as well,kids playing without fear and playing with maturity and teaching Germany a football lesson.A big message went out to those big time Charlie's who for one excuse or another decided last night's match wasn't for them (with the exception of Theo Walcott)-you can and will be replaced by players only too willing to play for their country.

    From dc Wolves, on Thu 20 Nov 2:52PM

  3. Germany had an understrength side too! Pull the other one! Germany, Jochim Löw did NOT call on Ballack or Frings, and Lahm was possibly the only injured player! So what? England on the other hand had nearly the whole of the first team out! Thankyou Mr Capello for doing something that English Managers of a National Side have been failing to do for such a long time, namely inspiring confidence in the players! England has always had good players, but they have been consistently badly led! It makes a nice change to see an England side playing that has not already lost the game in the dressing room thanks to the so called tactical discussions of the Manager!

    From Easyrider2609, on Thu 20 Nov 1:52PM

  4. LEKAPA ROCKS

    From Graig, on Thu 20 Nov 1:45PM

  5. NEW ENGLAND 2010 GEAR DEVELOPED BY SOUTH AFRICAN SUPPORTERS IS ON GUMTREE. JUST SEARCH FOR LEKAPA

    From Graig, on Thu 20 Nov 1:45PM

  6. Great result and great respect for the German management and players in defeat
    No excuses gracious in defeat Wenger and Ferguson should try it for once

    From BRIAN, on Thu 20 Nov 1:23PM

  7. After all the stick the Germans gave us for not qualifying for Euro 08:
    HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHAAH HAAHHAHAHAHAAHHAHAAHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHHAHAAHHAHAHA HAAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH AAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAAHAHAHHAHAHAHAAHHAHAAHA

    From BRIAN, on Thu 20 Nov 11:56AM

  8. It's amazing what can be achieved simply by passing the ball accurately, not giving possession away, and not just hoofing the ball hopefully up the field the whole time.

    At long last, England have become brilliant at the basics.

    From Greystar, on Thu 20 Nov 11:54AM

  9. Let keep up their game but have to remember itz only afriendly game.

    From stankoks, on Thu 20 Nov 11:42AM

  10. At L A S T!!!!!!!!!!! A team which runs and passes and plays with pride. Keep the same 11 next time out.

    From irenbird@..., on Thu 20 Nov 11:32AM

  11. nice to see england working as a team it dosnt matter what team you play at international level now days they will allways make good goal scoring chances well done the england reserves you can only beat what is put in front of you and that was a poor german performance lets hope people dont get carried away we can beat any team on our day but more often than not we dont beat the big teams when it matters and that is in competitions the germans have a mentality that we lack in competitions lets hope fabio can install that in the team in south africa and we dont leave it to penalties i hope he leaves the wags behind this time .
    any way well done england

    From simon w, on Thu 20 Nov 11:25AM

  12. Eurosport, YOU ARE AN INVALID.

    From Harry, on Thu 20 Nov 11:08AM

  13. COMMENT NUMBER 99!!! MARK CHANCE WERE ARE YOU FROM DOWNING BIT PART AND AVERAGE GAME HE WAS MAN OF MATCH !!!! I KNOW STUART AND HE PLAYED WELL BECAUSE THERE WAS NO LAMPARD TRYING TO DO EVERYTHING CORENER FREE KICKS ECT ALSO THERE IS NO POINT PLAYING DOWNING WHEN ASHLEY COLE PLAYS HE OVER LAPS DOWNING TO MUCH NO POINT DOWNING PLAYING IF HE HAS TO COME INSIDE !!!IF A COLE PLAYS THEN PLAY J COLE TO IF BRIDGE PLAYS PLAY DOWNING SIMPLE AND ON LAST NIGHTS PERFORMANCE WAYNE BRIDGE SHOULD PLAY AND SO SHOULD DOWNING ENGLAND WERE AWSOME LAST SO FAST EXPLOSIVE AT TIMES

    From darren m, on Thu 20 Nov 10:13AM

  14. I think last nights game shows that a team of players perform better than a team of individuals. They backed each other up even when mistakes were made. They were a TEAM. We need footballers who WANT to play for our country. It was a proud performance and worthy of great praise.

    From philip.allso@..., on Thu 20 Nov 10:12AM

  15. martystorey, you don't half talk s**t

    From c_k_b_69, on Thu 20 Nov 10:07AM

  16. Terry goal offside?!?!?

    He headed from behind a German defender?

    From Tom, on Thu 20 Nov 10:07AM

  17. STOP MOANING ABOUT THE TEAM WE BEAT THE GERMANS AGAIN IN THERE OWN BACK YARD

    WELL DONE BOYS GREAT GAME.

    From raybruce73, on Thu 20 Nov 10:07AM

  18. Germany was bad but the thing about that is they can get better England were playing at there best which is frightening to think that a team with such class players struggle against a bad performance from the Germans oh btw Terry goal offside and was at fault for the goal he had about 5 seconds to blast that ball anywere Carson made scapegoat by ppl who are in love with Terry who imo is why over rated a dirty @#$% and a bit rascist (sent off at Spurs 2 seasons ago for what? nuthin really or did he call Ledley King a black @#$%, cover up by media because he was new england captain??)

    From Martin S, on Thu 20 Nov 10:00AM

  19. Grreat game last night - Sean W-P fantastic.

    And how much do German fans pay to watch their clubs?

    And ditto our lot?

    Mmmm. MAybe find a second team to follow over there. Beer is good I believe

    From rob, on Thu 20 Nov 9:56AM

  20. Germany 1 - 2 England reserves

    From Justin, on Thu 20 Nov 9:44AM
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