The German Team around Joachim Löw could qualify for the European World Cup 2008 already at the last game on Saturday, October 13th, against Ireland. With an advantage of seven points and just two games to go Ireland is in third position and doesn’t have a chance to catch up with the German team. With twenty-three points the German Team was on the top of the standings and had not had any loss so far.
But the Czech Republic knew how to change that by beating the Germans on Wednesday, October 17th, in the outsold Allianz Arena in Munich with 0:3. It was the first loss for the German Team in a Qualification Round for a UEFA EURO for twenty-four games. Their last loss was in 1998 against Turkey.
In front of 66,400 spectators the game became interesting in the second minute when Libor Sionko from the Czech Team scored the first goal. Just twenty minutes later Torsten Frings lost the ball after a corner kick from the Czech Republic to Marek Matejovsky who curled the ball goalwards from a ten meter distance. The German keeper Timo Hildebrand didn’t have a chance to catch this shoot. The last goal was scored by Jaroslav Plasil in minute 63.
After this loss the team from the Czech Republic also took over at the top of the table. Though both of the teams have equal points; Czech Republic achieved three goals less than Germany. Besides that the Czech Republic qualified after this victory also for the UEFA EURO 2008. For Germany and the Czech Republic; it was the sixth time that they encountered each other, whereby Germany could achieve four victories.
There are still two games to play for the German National Team. Both of them will take place in Germany. The first one will be on November 17th against Cyprus and the second one just four days later against Wales.
