Germany 1, England 5

Easy to say in hindsight, but I had a good feeling about this match, with Germany’s first goal after only six minutes not worrying me as much as it perhaps should have. Although I thought England had a good chance of winning I never imagined by such a margin. The pre-match build-up brought to light a lot of interesting facts: every game Steven Gerald had played for England, England had won, but of all Germany’s qualifiers at home, they had only lost once against Portugal in 1986 - and at that time they had already qualified so this was pretty much academic.

Another fact: England had never won against Germany at home since 1965 - my feelings towards this fact were very much of well its going to happen, why not today? England certainly had the talent and determination, and this was shown by the swift appearance of the equaliser from Michael Owen only six minutes after Germany’s first - many had predicted him scoring for England in this match. But who would have guessed this goal would have been the first of three (equalling the achievement of Sir Geoff Hurst against West Germany in ‘66). Well seeing he was enjoying a period of great form, matched with the German’s poor defending, it was seeming more likely the further the match progressed.

But it wasn’t just Owen who performed well, with Gerald’s scorching goal before half time a welcome mental boost for the second half which saw England score three more goals - two form Owen and one from Hesky, making it five goals from three Liverpool players! The whole team performed well, David Beckham, Gary Neville as well as much criticised David Seaman who made a vital save during the match.

However this match was very different to England’s last victory against Germany in Euro 2000. Both teams then were very poor (with England’s win blown out of proportion as per usual, only for everyone to be brought back down to earth as we failed to qualify for the quarter finals). This time though it was different, Germany were topping the qualification group, and were ranked 5th in the world (England 15th). Although they showed many defensive frailties they also had many chances on goal - I lost count at how many chances and near misses they had!

England held their own, kept together and played well, proving to not only to us, but themselves that they could do it with a little commitment and determination.

On the pitch

England (ENG)

1. David Seaman (GK)
2. Gary Neville
3. Rio Ferdinand
4. Sol Campbell
5. Ashley Cole
6. David Beckham
7. Steven Gerrard (Owen Hargreaves 78)
8. Paul Scholes (Jamie Carragher 83)
9. Nick Barmby (Steve McManaman 65)
10. Micheal Owen
11. Emile Heskey

Germany (GER)

1. Oliver Kahn (GK)
2. Marko Rehmer
3. Christian Wörns (Asamoah 46)
4. Nowotny
5. Thomas Linke
6. Jorg Böhme
7. Dietmar Hamann
8. Sebastian Deisler
9. Michael Ballack (Miroslav Klose 67)
10. Carsten, Jancker
11. Oliver Neuville (Sebastian Kehl 78)

Match Officials (ITA)

Referee

Pierluigi Collina

Assistant Referees

Claudio Puglisi, Narciso Pisacreta

Fourth official

Fiorenzo Treossi