Mighty Germany took on Bosnia & Herzegovina for the German’s final warm-up match before the World Cup in a game of two halves. The Germans welcomed back Bastian Schweinsteiger and captain Phillip Lahm.
Skipper Lahm scored the equalizer for Germany
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The game started tentatively with much of the play happening in midfield as both sides probed for an opening. The first real chance arrived when Lukas Podolski blasted the ball off the crossbar.
It was Bosnia who took the lead with a bizarre goal however. Per Mertesacker’s blocked clearance fell to Pjanic, who chipped it delightfully to Dzeko. Dzeko held off Lahm and forced him into an unorthodox overhead clearance. Comically, the ball bounced off Dzeko’s chest and into the German goal.
Slowly but surely the Germans responded and had two decent chances, with Samir Khedira and Lukas Podolski combining beautifully but unable to apply the finish.
Bosnia seemed to recover into their shell, and having secured a fortunate goal sat back and absorbed the pressure from the attacking Germans. The Germans were dominating proceedings and only some terrific defending from the Bosnian’s enabled them to enter the second half with their lead intact.
At the start of the second half Loew brought on attackers Cacau and Thomas Mueller and the effect was instantaneous.
Bastille Storming!
Cacau found his captain racing away and laid a beautiful pass for Lahm who dribbled to the edge of the penalty area and unleashed a ferocious shot into the top corner of the goal to restore parity for the Germans.
Bosnia were being thoroughly outplayed and could barely get out of their own half. The Germans increased the pressure and Bosnia did themselves no favours by giving away a penalty as Marko Marin was felled by Sanel Jahic inside the box. Schweinsteiger duly converted the penalty to give the Germans a thoroughly deserved lead.
It got worse for Bosnia however as Spahic gave away another penalty due to his clumsy tackle on Mueller. Scweinsteiger stepped up once more and made no mistake as his shot rifled the top left hand corner to make it 3-1 at the final whistle.
Bosnia gave an impressive account of themselves in the first half but looked completely helpless when the Germans turned the screw in the second. They had no answer for the excellent German attack with Cacau in particular troubling them.
Germany having won their previous three matches in convincing fashion will enter the world cup confident of going far. They have traditionally been very strong in international competitions and should be counted as favourites alongside Brazil and Spain.
