Germany crushed
long-standing rival England 4-1 in a controversy-filled World Cup encounter on Sunday. The Germans now face Argentina next Saturday.

Slick counter-attacking combined with clinical finishing saw the Germans overwhelm England’s shaky-looking defense and put Germany through to a quarter-final clash against Argentina.

“Against England you’ll give up goal chances at some point. They have so many good players,” Müller said. “We had some luck and took the lead. After we went 3-1 up, we improved and the match was soon over after that.”

Clear Goal for England

Germany fully deserved their victory but the game will also be remembered for a controversial decision late in the first half which denied England an equalizer with the game at 2-1.

A shot from midfielder Frank Lampard struck the crossbar and the ball bounced well behind the goal line, but the referee waved play on.
“It was the most important part of the game,” England coach Fabio Capello said of the decision.

“We made some mistakes and the referee made one big mistake but Germany played a good game. Little things decide the result of these matches always. We played well up to 2-1 but after the third goal we were disappointed.”

But as Frank Winter of Britain's Daily Telegraph commented: "Don't be fooled by Fabio Capello’s smokescreen over Frank Lampard’s “goal’’. Even if the midfielder’s exceptional shot had stood, as it should, England cannot escape the brutal reality that Germany were superior in every department.

In a frantic first half Germany took a deserved 2-0 lead, repeatedly exposing their opponents’ defensive shortcomings with some mesmerizing high-paced play.

Miroslav Klose, back from a one-match suspension, snatched the lead in the 20th minute, catching the English defense napping and chasing down German keeper Manuel Neuer’s deep goal kick to slot home his 12th goal in World Cup tournaments.

They could have added another just before the half hour mark but Klose was denied by keeper David James. Striker Lukas Podolski made amends for his teammate’s miss in the 32nd minute with a fierce low drive after a sublime combination of passes via Müller and Mesut Özil to give them a two-goal cushion.

Lampard failed to pull one back minutes later, firing at Neuer from close range and Philipp Lahm clearing in front of goal. But Matthew Upson did get on the scoresheet, heading in a Steven Gerrard cross, with Neuer completely missing the ball, to cut the deficit in the 37th minute.