Germany aim for the stars after downing Brazil

Bastian Schweinsteiger said Germany "have shown we fear nobody" after an impressive 3-2 friendly victory over Brazil silenced the suggestion that Joachim Löw's side are yet to prove themselves against big teams.

After dominating the first half in Stuttgart, the hosts finally forged ahead through Schweinsteiger's penalty just after the hour. The second and third goals, for Mario Götze and André Schürrle, brought the 54,700 sell-out crowd to their feet, revelling in a playing style maturing after its dazzling infancy in South Africa last summer. Brazil were always in it, pulling the score back to 2-1 and 3-2; but Germany were never fazed.

"That's not the result which we wanted," said Neymar, stating the obvious. Yet Germany simply did not all the five-time world champions to play their own game. "We wanted to put Brazil under pressure and at times this worked well," explained Schweinsteiger, a dominant force in central midfield, creative and defensive in equal measure: Schürrle's goal was born in the FC Bayern München man's waspish pressing.

Perhaps most pleasing of all for Löw, the success came without two of Germany's biggest talents as Sami Khedira and Mesut Özil remained with Real Madrid CF. No matter; Toni Kroos slotted in effortlessly alongside Schweinsteiger while just in front of them, Özil's understudy Götze was man of the match on his first international start.

Dubbed 'Götzinho' before the game, the 19-year-old was untouchable, possibly even exceeding the immense expectation surrounding an inspiration behind Germany's 2009 UEFA European Under-17 Championship victory. "I relished every moment," Götze said – and it showed.

Löw was almost gushing in his praise, adding: "Mario Götze has extraordinary vision; he is finding solutions even when under pressure. It is the simple stuff, where he produces ingenious solutions, which makes him so strong.

"We started strongly, with good tempo. We combined well in the second half as well. Watching the joy and pleasure with which the players have performed – that was very strong. Now we have to keep working as we fell just short in 2010 and at EURO 2008."

Captain Philipp Lahm echoed those thoughts: "The euphoria is justified. We have marched through EURO qualification with seven wins in seven games and after an 18-year wait we have beaten Brazil. That is a big success."

A UEFA EURO 2012 place will be secure two games early with a Group A win against Austria in Gelsenkirchen on 2 September; the finals cannot come soon enough.