England 0-1 Germany - Match Report

In an international match between two big rivals, that was billed to be thrilling, the actual game, unsurprisingly failed to live up to the hype. In the end it was Arsenal defender Per Mertesaker's first-half header that proved to be the difference, meaning England lost consecutive games at Wembley for the first time in 36 years. England started the game brightly, with Andros Townsend enjoying a good few touches of the ball early on and causing the Germany back line trouble. However, Germany quickly settled into their game and quickly exerted their control, forcing England to display their qualities without the ball. The final ball was missing for England but they were showing promise as they kept on getting behind the fullbacks and exploiting the flanks. The game then started to settle out, before Germany popped up once again to show their talents and test Joe Hart. The Manchester City man initially made a superb save as the ball was whipped in from the corner and onto the head of Per Mertesaker. Moments later, the ball was cleared away very close to the line. The ball came to Kroos out-wide and he flicked in a perfect cross to the head of Arsenal's towering centre-back who superbly headed the ball into the corner of the net. There was nothing Joe Hart could do and England's age-old enemy had the lead at Wembley. The Germany side was missing a few big names; Ozil, Khedira to name just too, but this is a side that has class throughout their squad and they were showing it. Gerrard went for a spectacular equaliser just before the interval as he thumped a shot at the top corner, which dipped late and narrowly went over the bar. At half-time, like many expected, England were behind. The second-half immediately suggested that things were going to be more open for the remainder of the match and Joe Hart had to be on hand again to make a great save, palming away Kroos' shot. End-to-end stuff saw both sides pressing forward, though the match was still missing the killer moment and neither side could dominate with possession or chances. Andros Townsend was extremely close to netting an equaliser when he unleashed a trademark shot which cannoned back off the post, with Weidenfeller well beaten. Joe Hart, after impressing with some decent saves, then had another horror moment as he rushed out and clattered into Chris Smalling. However, he quickly redeemed himself with a smart save to deny Mario Gotze. Germany almost doubled their lead when good play left substitute Draxler one-on-one with the keeper but his lobbed effort was just over. It would have been a spectacular goal but the execution wasn't quite there. The game then ticked towards the final whistle without any clear-cut chances, while the possibility still remained that England would lose consecutive games for the first time since 1993. 4 minutes of additional time were signalled and it was still end-to-end, though not thrilling like some of this evening's World Cup Play-Offs. England pressed for an equaliser, which didn't look on the cards, while Germany were moving the ball about beautifully on occasions but were still failing to find that killer edge that you would expect from them. In the end, the score remained 1-0 to Germany and England were disappointing once again and lost two games in the space of a week. Boos rang out at Wembley, there's still plenty of work to do with the England national team.
Contributor
Contributor

Josh has had work featured in the Evening Gazette and on Newcastle United website. He is a Multimedia Journalism student at Teesside University and runs a successful sports blog. He also enjoys films, comics and TV, writing about anything he can. Josh has recently started writing his first of what he hopes will be many books.