Germany wins the football classic at Wembley, beating England 2-1. Following the game, Germany's coach Joachim Löw answered the questions of the media.
Question: You had to replace eleven experienced players, yet you squeezed out a 2-1 win at Wembley. Where do you rate this game?
Joachim Löw: Right now, I'm just very happy and proud of our team. There are not many places like Wembley, which makes winning here very special. At the same time, this was a friendly game. The qualifying games for the EURO 2008, that's when it really counts. As much as we enjoy this 2-1 win – beating Wales in September would mean much more.
Question: You surprised everybody with your line-up. Philipp Lahm played in front of your four defenders, which he never had done before.
Joachim Löw: We were forced to improvise because of the many injuries. Klose, Podolski and Gomez were not available, so we decided to play with just one forward, namely Kuranyi. We like to be more on the attack, usually. Then I needed a highly intelligent player positioned behind Schneider and Trochowski, somebody to intercept the second pass. Ballack and Frings were both injured, so we put Lahm on the spot. He did quite well. Christian Pander has shown some good games in the Bundesliga, so he had earned a chance. He looked sort of overwhelmed on England's goal, but it was great to see him battling back. Obviously, his goal was a sight to see. I'm pretty happy that we are able to play a number of different schemes.
Question: Did you see anything you did not like?
Joachim Löw: England forced us deep into our own halve for the first 20 minutes. This opponent and the 90,000 fans at Wembley Stadium made us play half-hearted for a while. These guys never had played together before. When England scored on us, we regained our courage and our will to fight. We got another push when we scored the tying goal. Suddenly we dominated the game. We had great chances to score a third goal in the second half, which we left on the table. But because of the final outcome, that's okay with me now.
Further information and the complete squad can be found here.
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Germany wins the football classic at Wembley, beating England 2-1. Following the game, Germany's coach Joachim Löw answered the questions of the media.
Question: You had to replace eleven experienced players, yet you squeezed out a 2-1 win at Wembley. Where do you rate this game?
Joachim Löw: Right now, I'm just very happy and proud of our team. There are not many places like Wembley, which makes winning here very special. At the same time, this was a friendly game. The qualifying games for the EURO 2008, that's when it really counts. As much as we enjoy this 2-1 win – beating Wales in September would mean much more.
Question: You surprised everybody with your line-up. Philipp Lahm played in front of your four defenders, which he never had done before.
Joachim Löw: We were forced to improvise because of the many injuries. Klose, Podolski and Gomez were not available, so we decided to play with just one forward, namely Kuranyi. We like to be more on the attack, usually. Then I needed a highly intelligent player positioned behind Schneider and Trochowski, somebody to intercept the second pass. Ballack and Frings were both injured, so we put Lahm on the spot. He did quite well. Christian Pander has shown some good games in the Bundesliga, so he had earned a chance. He looked sort of overwhelmed on England's goal, but it was great to see him battling back. Obviously, his goal was a sight to see. I'm pretty happy that we are able to play a number of different schemes.
Question: Did you see anything you did not like?
Joachim Löw: England forced us deep into our own halve for the first 20 minutes. This opponent and the 90,000 fans at Wembley Stadium made us play half-hearted for a while. These guys never had played together before. When England scored on us, we regained our courage and our will to fight. We got another push when we scored the tying goal. Suddenly we dominated the game. We had great chances to score a third goal in the second half, which we left on the table. But because of the final outcome, that's okay with me now.
Further information and the complete squad can be found here.
