Germany fall to Lewandowski and Poland

Germany dominated Saturday evening’s Euro 2016 qualifying fixture away to Poland but ultimately fell to a historic 2-0 defeat against the men led by Robert Lewandowski, the first time the Germans have ever lost a senior international meeting with their neighbours. The 58,000 capacity crowd in Warsaw saw Arkadiusz Milik (51) and Sebastian Mila (88) net the decisive goals in a game featuring all five nominated FCB players from start to finish.

“It’s an unnecessary defeat,” fumed Germany skipper Manuel Neuer afterwards, “we weren’t bad and we made lots of chances. If we’d taken the lead we’d have won.” Neuer was joined in Joachim Löw’s starting line-up by Jérôme Boateng, Mario Götze and Thomas Müller, with surprise choice Karim Bellarabi making his senior international debut.

The first half-hour was a cautious battle for midfield supremacy, with half-chances for Müller and Mats Hummels and the home team playing good football into the final third but failing to get the decisive pass away. The visitors were more dominant after the 30-minute mark but Bellarabi (37, 43) and Müller (39) failed to hit the target.

Podolski off the bar

After the restart Milik turned the game on its head with the opening goal (51) from the Poles’ first clear-cut opportunity. The world champions responded angrily but could not find a way through the resolute home defence, with sub Lukas Podolski’s 81st-minute shot off the bar the closest Löw’s men came. Instead, Mila sealed the historic maiden victory for Poland over Germany from Lewandowski’s 88th-minute assist.

The Germans are next in action on Tuesday against group leaders Ireland in Gelsenkirchen, with Poland again at home in Warsaw against Scotland.

Germany line-up in Warsaw: Neuer - Rüdiger (Kruse 83), Boateng, Hummels, Durm - Kramer (Draxler 72), Kroos - Bellarabi, Götze, Schürrle (Podolski 77) - Müller