England pander to Germany again

England 1-2 Germany
Having been the last international team to defeat England at the old Wembley Stadium, Germany became the first to do likewise in its new guise as they came from behind to win an entertaining friendly 2-1 in front of 86,133 fans in London.

Sterling strike
Dietmar Hamann was the German hero as they recorded a 1-0 FIFA World Cup qualifying success in October 2000, and Christian Pander took the acclaim tonight with a sterling strike on his debut to boost morale ahead of next month's UEFA EURO 2008™ qualifier against Wales. England, who took the lead through Frank Lampard before Kevin Kuranyi's equaliser, return to Wembley in September for Group E tests against Israel and Russia.

Lampard opener
England started the brighter on a wet night and took a deserved lead with nine minutes played. Lampard fired past Jens Lehmann at his near post after fine play from Micah Richards, who skipped past the challenges of Pander and Bernd Schneider before slipping a cute ball into his team-mate's path. Germany gradually worked their way into the game with a Christoph Metzelder header and a Thomas Hitzlsperger strike both serving as warning shots before they drew level on 26 minutes.

Robinson error
Paul Robinson was at fault, having misread Schneider's cross the goalkeeper could only palm the ball to Kuranyi who had the simplest of tasks to stab the ball in. Michael Owen – the scorer of a famous hat-trick against Germany – fired England's next real chance into the side-netting but it was Germany who struck the again through Pander's rocket on 40 minutes. The second half failed to have the flow of the first due to a glut of substitutions and Germany held firm as one of those changes, Kieron Dyer, slid the ball wide when it seemed easier to score.