Germany have beaten Uruguay 2-1 in the 2010 World Cup third-place final reiteration thanks to Gomez and Schurrle who scored the only two goals for Joachim Loew’s side in the first half. On the other side, Gargano gave the visitors a well-deserved consolation early in the second part. Unfortunately for the Mannschaft, Klose, who was introduced at the half time, suffered a very serious rib injury which will keep him away from the pitch and from the next two Euro 2012 qualifying games Germany are set to play early in June.
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It was a very tense match, though the two sides were sharing a friendly, which included plenty of tough interventions as well as a yellow card taken by Liverpool striker Suarez in the last minutes of play. Gomez opened the score in the 20th minute following a huge mistake from Lugano who lost the ball 30 yards out and allowed the striker start a long distance drive which he finished with a lovely dance between two defenders and a low close-range shot into the near post past keeper Muslera. Schurrle doubled the lead just 15 minutes later. Ream Madrid star Mesut Ozil was picked just outside the bos to feed the midfielder on the left from where he thundered a superb well-placed shot into the far post much to the delight of a warmly Rhein-Neckar Arena.
The two managers then started to make a lot of changes. Miroslav Klose replaced Ozil in the 45th minute, while Podolski, Howedes and Badstuber came on for Schurrle, Friedrich and Lahm 20 minutes later. Finally, Loew sent Gotze and Trasch for midfielders Kroos and Thomas Muller respectively in the 80th minute. On the other side, Oscar Tabarez used just three reserves. Ramirez replaced Pereira in the 56th minute, while Arevalo and Gargano departed for Eguren and Abreu in the last minutes.
Forlan and Suarez were kept on the pitch throughout the entire 90 minutes, but neither the Reds striker, nor the Atletico’s forwarder could beat Neuer. Suarez did have instead a solid contribution in Uruguay’s consolation goal. The former Ajax player was picked inside the box in the 48th minute, his shot being deflected by a German defender as far as Gargano who put it home from eight yards. Finally, it went 2-1 as Germany are looking pretty good ahead of the next two Euro 2012 clashes against Austria and Azerbaijan.
Joachim Loew’s side lead the group A with 15 points, having won five out of five games. They will visit Austria, on June 3 in their first meeting of the Preliminaries, while the second game against Azerbaijan will take place on June 7. Germany thwarted them 6-1 in the first leg at the Rhein Energie stadium. Unfortunately, Loew’s sqwuad will be stripped of the 61-goal Klose who is set to spend at least one month recovering. “He picked up a painful rib injury. Medical tests on Monday showed that the 32-year-old will need to refrain from training in the coming days and so cannot be at our disposal for the qualifiers,” the German FA statement read.
Germany – Neuer; Schmelzer, Hummels, Friedrich, Lahm; Rolfes, Kroos, Schurrle, Ozil, Muller, Gomez. Reserves: M. Gotze, H. Badstuber, C. Trasch, B. Howedes, M. Klose, T. Wiese, L. Podolski, R. Adler, D. Aogo.
Uruguay – Muslera; Pereira, Lugano, Godin, Caceres; Arevalo, Gargano, Cavani, Forlan, Pereira; Suarez. Reserves: G. Ramirez, S. Abreu, S. Eguren, M. Victorino, N. Lodeiro, Gonzalez, R. Munoz, S. Fernandez, D. Perez.
