New Delhi: Germany showed that their second-string team can also deliver when they beat an England football team that boasted of David Beckham and Michael Owen.
Germany came from behind to beat England 2-1 in a friendly on Wednesday, becoming the first team to do so at the new Wembley.
Germany's coach Joachim Loew had gone into the match without Michael Ballack, Bastian Schweinsteiger and first-choice strikers Miroslav Klose and Lukas Podolski.
Though England coach Steve McClaren was also without many of his first-choice players like Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard and Owen Hargreaves yet his team took the lead in the ninth minute, but in the end it were the Germans who came out victorious.
The hosts scored their only goal when Frank Lampard scored after Micah Richards had beaten Christian Pander and Philip Lahm on the right and passed the ball to Lampard who coolly drove it powerfully past goalkeeper Jens Lehmann.
Germany equalised in the 25th with Kevin Kuranyi finding the back of the English net. The goal came as a result of wrong judgement by England goalkeeper Paul Robinson, who missed a cross by German skipper Bernd Schneider and Kuranyi tapped the ball in for his fifth goal in six matches since returning to the team.
And Pander scored with a 25-meter shot in the 40th minute to seal the win. The result meant that the last team to beat England at the old Wembley is also the first to do it at the new one.
"You know I've missed two chances and I'm frustrated about that. You know with me, I think, my past history it say that after an injury, it normally takes me two or three games to get sharp, so hopefully that's the case this time, hopefully in a couple of weeks, couple of good games for my club and I'll come back and be even sharper to punish teams when they gave me chances like that," England striker Michael Owen later said.
The defeat came at a very difficult time for McClaren, whose team has two tough qualifying games at home for Euro 2008 against Israel and Russia. England are fourth in their group and also have to deal with the talented Croatians.
This is Germany's sixth win over England since 1972 including the penalty shootout win at Wembley in Euro 96.
"It's always good when you have to make a number of changes and you see those changes work," Loew said. "I am satisfied to see that we can play 4-3-3 or 4-5-1. I am happy for my young players."
"There's only one team at Wembley," the German fans shouted in English to taunt the home fans in a crowd of 86,133.
McClaren had hoped for a confidence-boosting performance. Instead, he was dealt a blow.
"I was delighted with the majority of it and the chances we created," McClaren said. "But disappointed with the goals we conceded. Of course, it's very disappointing for the fans, but there are so many positives."
There were huge cheers for Beckham, making his 97th appearance and first since he began playing in the United States with the Los Angeles Galaxy. He played for the entire duration of the match without showing too much discomfort from his injured left ankle.
(With inputs from Associated Press)
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