Football

Home page

Football

England vs Germany: Don’t Mention The Score

26 June 2010 02:25 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. England’s World Cup clash with Germany on Sunday will reignite one of the hardest fought rivalries in footballing history, APA reports quoting â€œSky Newsâ€.
Gazza’s tears, Southgate’s penalty miss, a 5-1 England victory in Munich and the 1966 final are the stuff of Three Lions folklore.
But the fixture stretches back more than 110 years, long before the exploits of Geoff Hurst and Michael Owen fuelled a flurry of military metaphors in the tabloid press.
The countries first met in November 1899 when England went on a four game tour of Germany and Austria.
England won the first game - in Berlin - 13-2. Two days later they trounced the Germans again, this time 10-2.
The first fully-recognised international between the two sides took place on May 10, 1930, in Berlin with the match drawn 3-3.
1938 saw a more controversial affair at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin. The English players were ordered to line up and perform a Nazi salute to their hosts in front of 110,000 people.
England won the game 6-3.
In 1949, two German states were founded, and with that two teams.
The West Germany side, based in the Federal Republic Of Germany, was the stronger of the two sides - and became England’s main rivals.
A number of friendlies were played before the highly controversial 1966 final.
With the scores level at 2-2 in extra time Geoff Hurst’s shot bounced down from the crossbar and out of the German goal before being cleared by defenders.
Linesman Tofik Bakhramov, from Azerbaijan, decided the ball had crossed the line and England went 3-2 up.
When England played Azerbaijan in a World Cup qualifier in October 2004 English fans laid flowers on Bakhramov’s grave.
Hurst’s third goal was no less controversial, sealing the 4-2 victory after fans had already spilled on to the Wembley pitch.
The goal and celebrations prompted commentator Kenneth Wolstenholme’s famous words: "They think it’s all over ... it is now."
The next big match between the two sides was in the quater final of the 1970 World Cup in Mexico.
The Germans fought back from 2-0 down to win 3-2 thanks to goals from Beckenbauer, Seeler and Muller.
Days later Harold Wilson blamed Labour’s loss in the general election on the defeat.
More misery was heaped on England by the Germans in the quater finals of the 1972 European Championships when England lost over two legs.
There were several friendly games in the 70s and 80s and a 0-0 draw in the 1982 World Cup group stage before the memorable semi-final at the 1990 World Cup in Italy.
England had started that tournament in exactly the same fashion as this one.
A 1-1 draw, a 0-0 draw and a 1-0 victory, against the Republic of Ireland, Holland and Egypt respectively.
The semi-final left Gascoigne in tears and Stuart Pearce and Chris Waddle ruing penalty misses.
Gary Lineker had pegged the Germans back to 1-1 with an 80th minute strike but England eventually lost 4-3 on penalties.
West Germany went on to beat Argentina in the final.
The two teams met again in a semi-final at the 1996 Euro Championships in England.
Tabloid headlines whipped fans up into a frenzy.
One in the Daily Mirror - Achtung! Surrender! For You Fritz, Ze Euro 96 Championship Is Over - led to an apology by the then editor Piers Morgan.
The scores remained 1-1 at the end of extra time and then 5-5 on penalties. Gareth Southgate missed his sudden death penalty and Andreas Moller scored.
England were out again and once again Germany went on to win the tournament.
Germany fell 1-0 to an Alan Shearer goal at the 2000 European Championships - but losses to Portugal and Romania meant England went out at the group stage.
England got their own back in style in September 2001 during the qualifying stages for the World Cup 2002 tournament.
England - under Kevin Keegan - had lost 1-0 to the Germans in the last international at the old Wembley stadium.
They travelled for the return leg in Munich under new manager Sven-Goran Eriksson.
It proved to be one of the finest English displays of recent times with Michael Owen notching a hat-trick in a monumental 5-1 victory.
German legend Karl-Heinz Rummenigge lamanted: "I have never seen such a terrible defeat ... this is a new Waterloo for us."
The News Of The World newspaper crowed: "Don’t Mention The Score".
England did not meet Germany at Euro 2004 and the World Cup in 2006 and they failed to qualify for Euro 2008.
But the teams met again at Wembley on August 22, 2007 and the visitors won 2-1.
On November 19, 2008, England won 2-1 in Berlin, Germany’s first defeat in the city for 35 years.
That was the last time the two sides met.
On Sunday they play again in Bloemfontein. It promises to be passionate affair.