Four Munich men featured in Germany’s starting line-up as the world champions moved onto 16 points at the top of their Euro 2016 qualifying group with a 3-1 victory over previous leaders Poland (14 points), captained by Robert Lewandowski. All the goals were scored by FCB men, with Thomas Müller (12) and Mario Götze (19, 82) on target for the home team and Lewandowski (36) replying for the visitors.
“We knew beforehand we had to take all three points,” a delighted Götze said afterwards, “we can be very pleased.” Müller said he was “relieved we won,” and that Germany “played well” and “dominated the game. We’re obviously pleased to win against our strongest group opponents, but we have to keep working on our game.”
All the Munich men started the game, Manuel Neuer, Jérôme Boateng, Müller and Götze for the home team and Lewandowski for the visitors. The 48,500 sell-out crowd at the Commerzbank Arena in Frankfurt saw Joachim Löw’s side begin well, with Müller firing home his 28th goal in 64 internationals following a slick move between Jonas Hector and Karim Bellarabi in the 12th minute.
Luck on Germany’s side
At the other end, Neuer was not a complete spectator and made a good save from Grosicki. Almost immediately, Götze had the crowd on its feet with a powerful drive to make the score 2-0 on 19 minutes. The Poles refused to be knocked out of their stride and Lewandowski pulled one back after 36 minutes. The visitors had their tails up now and Neuer (45+1) and Götze cleared off the line in quick succession with Lewandowski poised to equalise. “We got lucky,” the FCN attacker acknowledged.
The frantic action continued after the break with dangerous situations in both penalty areas, Götze seeing his curling effort rebound off the post after 57 minutes, and Müller (71) and Mats Hummels (72) going close. Götze ultimately wrapped it up with eight minutes left, forcing home the rebound from a blocked Müller shot. The world champions now travel to face Scotland on Monday, with the Poles at home to minnows Gibraltar.
Germany line-up versus Poland: Neuer - Can, Boateng, Hummels, Hector - Schweinsteiger, Kroos Müller, Özil, Bellarabi (Gündogan 53) - Götze (Podolski 90)
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