Stand-in strikers inspire Germany

Wednesday, 7 February 2007
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Germany 3-1 Switzerland
Stand-in strikers Kevin Kuranyi and Mario Gomez fired Germany to a friendly international win against the UEFA EURO 2008™ co-hosts in Dusseldorf.

Debut goal
Kuranyi celebrated his recall following a 15-month exile by opening the scoring in the eighth minute, before Gomez marked his Germany debut with a goal on the half-hour, heading a Clemens Fritz cross beyond Diego Benaglio. Torsten Frings made it 3-0 in the 66th minute with a free-kick that drifted in at the far post, and although Switzerland pulled one back five minutes later through VfB Stuttgart's Marco Streller, a German victory in this 49th meeting between the old rivals was never in doubt.

Encouraging
With Miroslav Klose injured and Lukas Podolski suspended, home coach Joachim Löw was forced to name a new strike partnership and the combination of Kuranyi and Gomez did not disappoint. That will be encouraging with a view to the UEFA EURO 2008™ qualifier in Prague in March, when Klose will be suspended. "The two strikers did very well," Löw said. "We're very happy with the performance but now the big game is coming up against the Czech Republic, when we'll have the chance to take a big step towards the finals."

Fizzed cross
Kuranyi opportunistically nodded in the opener after a Michael Ballack header had been saved, and the second came when Fritz collected a pass from Philipp Lahm and fizzed a cross low into the box for Gomez to convert with a perfect flicked header. Switzerland should have reduced the deficit just before half-time when Alexander Frei, played in by Hakan Yakin, chose to shoot rather than return the ball to his fellow forward.

'Cold shower'
The visiting defence were left blaming each other when a Frings free-kick from wide on the left sailed past everyone and into the net for Germany's third, although Switzerland did save some face when Streller was allowed space to reach a Lahm pass ahead of Christoph Metzelder and beat Jens Lehmann on the turn. "That was something of a cold shower for us," said Switzerland coach Jakob Kuhn.

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