- Macdara Ferris
- Fri, Sep 04 2015
Having lost last time out in Poland earlier in the campaign, Germany extracted a definite modicum of revenge by winning 3-1 in Frankfurt on Friday in their France 2016 qualifier to go top of Group D.
The World Champions delighted the home support, and stunned the sizeable away crowd, by going 2-0 up before even 20 minutes were up on the scorebard that floats above the pitch in Frankfurt. It looked like the World Champions were going to go top of Group D with ease but that wasn’t quite how it turned out on the night. It took Mario Goetze’s late goal, his second of the game, to put the match beyond a plucky Polish team.
The home side started the game brightly and were unlucky not to go a goal up within the first five minutes of the game. A deflection was enough to save Poland on that occasion as Karim Bellarabi’s shot shaved the outside of the Polish post thanks to a touch en-route. However it didn’t take long for Joachim Loew’s team to go in front.
It was Thomas Mueller who got the goal after a great one-two between Jonas Hector and Bellarabi allowed Hector to set up Mueller on 12 minutes. Arkadiusz Milik dropping into a position wide on the right for Poland, couldn’t stop Hector getting forward to support Mueller as he slotted the ball beyond Lukasz Fabianski. The home support amongst the sold out crowd in the Commerzbank Arena nearly lifted off the canvass roof with their celebrations.
Poland looked to get back into the game quickly and after a sustained bout of pressure Kamil Grosicki did at least test Manuel Neuer. That save allowed Germany to spring forward and grab a second goal though. A driving run by Mario Goetze off through the centre of the Polish defence on 19 minutes gave him the space to pick out the corner of the goal to make it 2-0.
Germany had a succession of chances that they squandered after that. Mueller found the back of the net from an offside position which was correctly ruled out. Hector, having had a hand both German goals, allowed a loose pass to come to Grzegorz Krychowiak. His speculative shot from 40 yards required Neuer to get down low to save.
There was nothing that Neuer could do though with Poland’s next effort eight minutes before the break. Robert Lewandowski found the back of the net with a diving header from a superb outside of the right boot pass from Kamil Grosicki from wide on the left.
The Polish captain in first half injury time then brought the best from his Bayern teammate with his shot from the edge of the area tipped over the bar by Neuer. The resulting corner in first half injury time required Goetze to head clear off the line as Germany were glad of the half time whistle.
The game was a much calmer affair after the break. Goetze did go close to adding another goal to his team’s tally when he curled an effort against the Polish post on 57 minutes. Toni Kroos was whipping corners in that required Poland to be resolute in their defending.
Tomasz Jodlowiec’s block prevented a Schweinsteiger shot troubling Fabianski from one corner and the next, when taken short, allowed Kroos to cross to the back post to Hummels. Fabianski diving full length to his left saved Hummels’ header with his fingertips and hung onto the ball under close attention from the German attackers.
It took till 8 minutes from time for Germany to confirm the win as Mario Goetze grabbed his second goal when he was quickest to react to Thomas Mueller’s deflected shot being saved. The victory sees Germany go top of the table, jumping above Poland in Group D, ahead of ‘Die Mannschaft’ tavelling to Hampden Park next Monday. Ireland fans, on a high after the Boys in Green’s victory over Gibraltar, will be hoping that Joachim Loew’s men will make it two wins from two in September.
Germany: Manuel Neuer; Emre Can, Jerome Boateng, Mats Hummels, Jonas Hector; Bastian Schweinsteiger ©, Toni Kroos; Thomas Müller, Mesut Ozil, Karim Bellarabi (IIkay Gundogan 53); Mario Götze (Lukas Podolski 90+1).
Subs Not Used: Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Ron-Robert Zieler, Shkodran Mustafi, Sebastian Rudy, Matthias Ginter, Andre Schurrle, Kevin Volland, Christoph Kramer, Max Kruse.
Booked: Schweinsteiger (79).
Poland: Lukasz Fabianski; Lukasz Piszczek (Pawel Olkowski 43), Lukas Szukala, Kamil Glik, Maciej Rybus; Krzysztof Maczynski (Jakub Blaszczykowski 63), Grzegorz Krychowiak, Tomasz Jodlowiec, Kamil Grosicki (Slawomir Peszko 83); Robert Lewandowski ©, Arkadiusz Milik.
Subs not used: Wojciech Szczesny, Artur Boruc, Artur Jedrzejczyk Marcin Komorowski, Thiago Rangel Cionek, Karol Linetty, Sebastian Mila, Piotr Zielinski, Michal Kucharcz.
Booked: Rybus (8), Grosicki (67)
Referee: Nicola Rizzoli (Italy).
Attendance: 48,500.
ExtraTime.ie Man of the Match: Mario Goetze (Germany).
