Germany celebrate 13-0 in San Marino

06.09.2006

Germany crushed San Marino with a record 13-0 win on Wednesday, striker Lukas Podolski scoring four in a Euro 2008 Group D qualifier.
The victory is a record in a European Championship qualifying match - bettering Spain's 12-1 victory over Malta in December, 1983. Joachim Loew's side were 6-0 up by the interval against hopeless opposition and never eased up as they humiliated their mostly amateur opponents.

Bastian Schweinsteiger, Miroslav Klose and Thomas Hitzlsperger all scored two goals each with Michael Ballack, Arne Friedrich and Bernd Schneider (penalty) also on target.

from fcb.de

Germany: Jens Lehmann; Philipp Lahm, Manuel Friedrich, Arne Friedrich, Marcell Jansen, Bernd Schneider, Michael Ballack (David Odonkor 45'), Torsten Frings (Thomas Hitzlsperger 61'), Bastian Schweinsteiger, Miroslav Klose (Gerald Asamoah 45'), Lukas Podolski

Goal(s): Podolski 11', 43', 64', 72', Schweinsteiger 28', 47', Klose 30', 45' + 1', Ballack 35', Hitzlsperger 66', 72', M. Friedrich 87', Schneider 90' (pen)

the game looked more like a practice than an event qualifier. the German side enjoyed the game, and utilized it to practice shooting and run through set pieces. they looked relaxed, even had the chance to show off the seldomly-revealed German version of Joga Bonito.

i couldn't assess player from this performance. but i have to mention Marcell Jansen. maybe its the San Marino players, but Jansen was great. he looked good running down the flanks and crossed really well, and better yet he's still 21. he's in my watch list!
another point that is worth mentioning is that the players, specially the strikers, were on target. in a scale of 1-10, i would grade them 8. the only downside was they missed a couple of golden opportunities. in a tough match those chances in front of the goal are very rare, they should have finished it.

looks like a good start! looking forward to the Czechs

Great effort, althought even before a ball was kicked the Germans knew they'd win, but not by such a great margin!

Well played Germany

Thats how you deal with the minnows