Match Number: 799 Date: 06-February-2008 Location: Wien (Vienna/Austria) Competition: Friendly AUSTRIA: Manninger Pogatetz, Stranzl, Prödl Standfest, Aufhauser (69. Prager), Säumel, Fuchs Ivanschitz Harnik (74. Kienast), Linz (82. Kavlak) GERMANY: Lehmann Westermann, Mertesacker, M. Friedrich (74. Hilbert), Lahm Schneider (59. Podolski), Ballack (87. Rolfes), Hitzlsperger (82. Jones), Schweinsteiger Kuranyi (59. Gomez), Klose Scoring: 0:1 Hitzlsperger (53.) 0:2 Klose (63.) 0:3 Gomez (80.) Referee: Paolo Dondarini (Italy) Yellow cards: Aufhauser, Linz - Ballack, Mertesacker, Friedrich Attenadnce: 48,500A lame performance by Germany to open the 2008 season. Austria dominated the 1st half in front of the home fans, and probably should have had at least a 1 goal lead. In the 2nd half, Germany woke up and ended up kicking the host's ass, but the scoreline was clearly unfair to Austria.
This is the 34th meeting between the two sides since 1908, although surprsingly Germany has played more matches against the Netherlands (36) and Switzerland (48). This was the 20th German win, which is their most except for Switzerland (34).
Schalke's Heiko Westermann made his debut, but that's the only thing he'll want to remember, as he sucked. (His teammate Jermaine Jones also debuted later, but the game was decided already.) In fact, almost the whole squad was crap, especially GK Jens Lehmann, who did everything possible to gift the Austrians a goal. I'll bet Dortmund fans are now cheering that he refused to come over in the transfer window. Bayern defender Philip Lahm was the only defender to somewhat play acceptably, and the only player to keep his cool and put things together was midfielder Thomas Hitzlsperger. He opened the scoring and help set up Ballack's pass for the deciding goal by Klose. The Austrians fell apart after a strong first half, and didn't have any standouts.