A promising young England team beat a Germany side featuring Thomas Müller, Manuel Neuer and Mario Götze on Saturday evening, although there were wins for Robert Lewandowski of Poland and Austria’s David Alaba. fcbayern.de summarises the night’s international action:
Germany 2-3 England
1-0 Toni Kroos (43), 2-0 Gomez (57), 2-1 Harry Kane (61), 2-2 Jamie Vardy (74), 2-3 Eric Dier (90+1)
Line-up: Neuer - Can, Rüdiger, Hummels (Tah 46), Hector - Khedira, Kroos - Müller (Podolski 75), Özil, Reus (Schürrle 64) - Gomez (Götze 80)
Manuel Neuer and Thomas Müller started the clash in Berlin for Joachim Löw’s team. Following a minute’s silence for the victims of the Brussels terrorist attacks, the Germans made the better start and were unlucky when a 27th-minute Mario Gomez strike was wrongly ruled out for offside.
The visitors clawed their way into the game after that and caused the world champions an array of problems with an energetic pressing game, Adam Lallana coming close on 38 minutes. Löw’s men replied two minutes before the break when Toni Kroos opened the scoring from long range.
England continued to trouble their opponents after the interval and Neuer saved well from Dele Alli on 52 minutes, although the next goal fell to the home team when Gomez headed home a Sami Khedira cross after 57 minutes.
Roy Hodgson’s visitors never gave up and were rewarded in the 61st minute when Harry Kane showed quick feet in the box after a corner and pulled a goal back. Neuer then saved well from Alli, but the Bayern keeper was powerless to stop a fine Jamie Vardy equaliser, the Leicester man scoring with a backheel to level the scores in the 74th minute.
Götze entered the fray after 80 minutes but England continued to make the better chances, with Jordan Henderson firing narrowly wide on 83 minutes and Alli missing an open goal just a minute later. But in stoppage time Eric Dier met a corner with a firm header to win it 3-2 for England.
Poland 5-0 Finland
1-0 Kamil Grosicki (18), 2-0 Pawel Wszolek (20), 3-0 Filip Starzynski (32), 4-0 Pawel Wszolek (67), 5-0 Kamil Grosicki (85)
Robert Lewandowski started on the bench in Wroclaw but came on as a 67th minute sub and earned his 75th international cap. He becomes only the 11th player to pass the milestone for Poland.
Austria 2-1 Albania
1-0 Marc Janko (6), 2-0 Martin Harnik (13), 2-1 Ermir Lenjani (47)
Kace (Albania) was sent off for a second yellow card after 77 minutes
David Alaba played 87 minutes of the contest in Vienna before giving way to former Munich man Alessandro Schöpf, who made his senior international debut. “We can be happy with the first half, but in the second we were knocked out of our stride by Albania’s pressing, and we also slightly ran out of steam,” Alaba commented.
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