England 1-2 Gremany

[berni23]

Germany came from a goal down to claim a 2-1 victory over old rivals England in a friendly match at Wembley on Wednesday.

Frank Lampard opened the scoring for the hosts only to see Kevin Kuranyi level things up after a goalkeeping error from Paul Robinson. Debutant Christian Pander then thundered home a brilliant winner to make it a night to remember for Germany, and one to forget for England.

Pre-match talk of turning Wembley into a fortress proved rather hollow as England went one worse than their first appearance at the new stadium - a 1-1 draw against Brazil - by again letting slip a lead, only going on to lose the game this time round.

In fairness to Steve McClaren's side, they started the game without a number of regular starters - including Steven Gerrard, Wayne Rooney and Ashley Cole - but then, Germany were suffering similar problems with a host of their own World Cup stars on the treatment table.

That said, England started the brighter of the two teams, with Micah Richards giving the inexperienced Pander a particularly torrid time with his surging runs down the right flank.

And it was the Manchester City youngster who prompted the first breakthrough of the evening, turning the Schalke defender inside out before slipping a pass through for Lampard to run on to and blast into the roof of the net.

Germany goalkeeper Jens Lehmann may have been at fault for letting the ball past at his near post, but it truth, he could not have done much to stop Lampard's rocket, such was the force of the shot.

The Arsenal keeper, whose season has been blighted by two high profile errors already, very nearly saw recent history repeat itself as the first half drew to a close. But Michael Owen could only fire over the bar from close range after Lehmann had inexplicably spilled the ball into the England striker's path.

With all eyes on Lehmann, the debatable form of England's own number one - Paul Robinson - was somewhat ignored. The Spurs shotstopper has been much criticised of late and his gaffe on 27 minutes put him right back in the spotlight by doing nothing to disprove that criticism.

Robinson was caught off balance as Germany skipper Bernd Schneider's sliced cross ballooned towards goal and all the keeper could do to prevent a freak goal was to claw the ball away from goal. Unfortunately for him, and for England, the ball fell nicely into the path of Kuranyi, who slotted into an empty net.

Robinson was duly substituted at half time, although the management claimed it had always been the plan to bring on David James for the second period.

The goal prompted some increased pressure from the Germans, and Christoph Metzelder went close with a header before Thomas Hitzlsperger forced Robinson into action with a long range effort.

It was England however, who next came closest to scoring but Lampard hung on to the ball a second too long when played through on goal and Lehmann was able to make the save just after the half hour mark.

Step forward young Pander. While the source of Germany's winner was unlikely given the grilling he had taken from Richards early on, it was undeniably a super strike. The 23-year-old let fly from 25 yards and Robinson could only watch as the ball arrowed into the top right hand corner.

The lead was very nearly short-lived and Owen could then have levelled things up immediately, but his header from Alan Smith's clever chipped pass was beaten away by Lehmann

The second half brought around an inevitable spate of changes to the England side as McClaren decided to utilise his full allocation of six substitutions. As such, the hosts' play lacked rhythm in the second period, although the introduction of Shaun Wright-Phillips did bring a little colour to the game.

The Chelsea winger has started the season superbly and his showing against Germany - on the left of midfield - did much to put forward a case for his inclusion for the upcoming Euro 2008 qualifiers against Israel and Russia.

The performance of his club team-mate Joe Cole was another highlight of the match, and it was his pass to David Beckham which nearly led to the equalising goal on 66 minutes. Cole's ball dissected the German defence but Beckham's first time cross was slid wide of the mark by substitute Kieron Dyer.

England never truly looked like grabbing an equaliser in the second half, although John Terry did have a header cleared off the line by Philipp Lahm as time ran out.

It was not to be and with a record that reads played two, drawn one, lost one, England have quite some way to go before visiting teams fear coming to Wembley.

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