Australia wins in Dortmund eight months after losing by four goals to Germany in the World Cup. Spain and the Netherlands remain perfectly in qualifying for Euro
Australia, who was on the receiving end of a 4-0 thrashing by Germany at the World Championships last summer, has turned the tables on international football teams in third place by beating the Germans, 2 -1, in Dortmund on Tuesday.
The game was only a friendly, but the result will be sent to Germany via the pressure waves, which reached the World Cup semi-final in South Africa only eight months ago.
It's great for the future of the game in our country, "Australia captain Lucas Neill, told Agence France Presse." By removing the top teams, we continue to surprise us ... and give young players a great platform on which to build. This will make us stronger.
"It's a great victory. We went to a historic victory and incredible."
Australia, who finished second behind Japan in Asia Cup in January, is led by Holger Osieck assistant coach Franz Beckenbauer, Germany's 1990 World Cup winning team.
"It would be presumptuous before the game thinking we could win," said Osieck. "But we have better and better in the second half."
Mario Gomez gave the lead in Germany after 26 minutes, but second half goals four minutes apart from David Carney and Luke Wilkshire, the second on a penalty, the Socceroos won their victory unlikely.
Germany coach Joachim Loew, who chose not to field a full strength team, called the result "a shame", adding that "in the second half, we threw the match away."
Australia, could have been partly inspired by the insult to the eve of the match in the former German Uli Hoeness, Bayern's outspoken president of Monaco.
"Match Bayern and B teams are stronger" than the game in Australia, said Hoeness.
In another surprising result in an international friendly match, England were held to a 1-1 tie Tuesday against 80,102 at Wembley Stadium in London from Ghana, who snatched a draw in the 91st minute by Objectives Asamoah Gyan after Andy Carroll scored his first international goal for England, two minutes before the break.
Also surprised was the Russian, who has traveled to Doha to play a friendly against Qatar in a match pitting the 2018 and 2022 World Cup host nations.
Russia is ranked No. 13 of the world. Qatar is ranked No. 90 The result was a 1-1 draw, however, where the defender Mohammed Kosola title in Qatar in front four minutes and Roman Pavlyuchenko of Russia by tying a half hour later.
"I could not get the necessary commitment from my players tonight or in our previous match," said Dutch coach Dick Advocaat to Russia, referring to a 1-1 tie with Iran in a month last friendly. "I am very disappointed with the result here."
