Czechs demolish Germany to book Euro 2008 place

FE Team | Published: October 19, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

MUNICH, Oct 18 (AFP): The Czech Republic made a mockery of Germany's unbeaten record in Euro 2008 qualifiers with a thumping 3-0 away win at Munich's Allianz Arena to seal their qualification.
Having already qualified for Euro 2008 thanks to last Saturday's 0-0 draw with the Republic of Ireland, Germany lost their place at the top of Group D to the Czechs, who needed a win to book their place at next summer's tournament.
The Czechs blitzed Germany's defence with all three goals coming from their midfield as coach Karel Brueckner's tactic of playing a 4-2-3-1 formation paid off.
German captain Torsten Frings had disappointment written all over his face at the final whistle.
"We didn't have the right attitude, we were asleep for the first goal after two minutes and it was hard to wake ourselves up after that," he said.
Head coach Joachim Loew said none of his players did themselves justice in a flat performance.
"We were without movement, tempo and structure," said Loew.
"The whole match was disappointing, everything we have worked on and strengthened in the last month was missing.
"The tension was there yesterday, but it was all missing tonight. Each and everyone of my players was below their normal level."
In contrast, Czech coach Brueckner was a happy man.
"Of course, I am delighted," he said.
"We have won and have qualified for Euro 2008, we prepared very well and the early goal was important, it helped to settle us."
The result made a mockery of double World Cup winner Franz Beckenbauer's pre-match assertion that Germany are the best and most consistent team in Europe as they suffered their first defeat in 10 qualification games.
The last time Germany lost 3-0 at home was against France four years ago.
Loew had named his strongest available team with captain Michael Ballack, defender Philipp Lahm, striker Miroslav Klose and midfielder Bernd Schneider all injured, while goalkeeper Jens Lehmann is suspended.
But the Germans had no excuses as they got off to a nightmare start to find themselves 2-0 down in a little over 20 minutes.
A mix-up in defence left the Czech's towering lone striker Jan Koller unmarked in the penalty area with the goal at his mercy, but he laid the ball off to midfielder Libor Sionko to beat Timo Hildebrand after two minutes.
And a long goal clearance by the Czech Republic's goalkeeper Petr Cech was headed on by Koller into the path of midfielder Marek Matejovsky, who beat defender Christoph Metzelder for pace and hit his shot past Hildebrand on 23 minutes.
Germany have not won a game by coming back from 2-0 down since 1976 and they showed precious few signs of matching that feat with strikers Kevin Kuranyi and Lukas Podolski virtually anonymous.