Germany squander victory against Sweden

German national football team was 4-0 in the lead against Sweden after 60 minutes but managed to give the victory away as the match ended 4-4. Sweden fought back with everything they had but a shamefully defending German squad made it quite easy for them to get back on track. All other results of the European half of the qualifiers are listed below the text.

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German national team started off against Sweden right were the left in Ireland and played beautiful football. The first two goals of Miro Klose (8th, 15th minute) were results of delightful combinations and both assisted by a brilliantly playing Marco Reus. Germany more than dominated the match over the first hour and the goals of Mertesacker (39th) and Mesut Oezil (55th) allegedly decided the game.

But Sweden´s superstar Zlatan Ibrahimovic thought otherwise and scored the first goal for his team in minute 62. Lustig (64th) and Elmander (76th) scored the next two goals and Germany were unable to get back on track. The defenders, especially Holger Badstuber and Jerome Boateng, made horrible positional errors that cost the victory in the end. Manuel Neuer did his part in unsettling the defence with a couple of unusual mistakes. Elm scored the equalizer for Sweden in minute 90 + 3 to shock the German team.

Germany have now ten points out of four matches starting into the qualifiers for World Cup 2014 in Brazil. The year 2012 is over for the national squad except the friendly game against the Netherlands in mid November. All results from the fourth matchday of the European part of the qualifiers are listed below:

Russia                                   -             Azerbaijan          1:0 (0:0)                    

Israel                                   -              Luxembourg       3:0 (2:0)                       

Belarus                                -              Georgia               3:0 (2:0)    

Andorra                               -             Estonia                 0:1 (0:0)                        

Latvia                                  -              Liechtenstein        2:0 (1:0)                   

Croatia                                -              Wales                   2:0 (1:0)              

Czech Republic                    -             Bulgaria               0:0 (0:0)              

Faroe Islands                     -              Rep. of Ireland    1:4 (0:0)              

Romania                              -             Netherlands         1:4 (1:3)              

Cyprus                                 -             Norway               1:3 (1:1)    

Bosnien-Herzegowina         -             Lithuania             3:0 (3:0)              

Ukraine                               -              Montenegro        0:1 (0:1)              

Macedonia                          -             Serbia                   1:0 (0:0)              

Hungary                              -             Turkey                  3:1 (1:1)              

Iceland                                -             Switzerland        0:2 (0:0)              

Slovakia                               -             Greece                 0:1 (0:0)              

San Marino                          -             Moldavia             0:2 (0:0)              

Austria                                 -             Kazakhstan        4:0 (1:0)              

Belgium                               -             Scotland              2:0 (0:0)              

Italy                                    -             Denmark             3:1 (2:1)              

Germany                             -             Sweden               4:4 (3:0)              

Albania                                -             Slovenia              1:0 (1:0)              

Spain                                  -              France                  1:1 (1:0)              

Portugal                             -              North. Ireland       1:1 (0:1)