Miroslav Klose' hat-trick saved Germany from a historic defeat against Finland. Germany's prolific goals scorer secured Germany a flattering 3:3 draw against Finland.
The European championship runners-up are still on track to qualify for the World Cup but barely staved off their first away defeat.
A full house
Klose, scored in the 38th, 44th and 83rd minutes, moving up above Uwe Seeler into sixth placein the list of top goal scorers for Germany. His third was the equaliser for coach Joachim Löw's team. Germany struggled, above all in defence, in front of a full house in the Olympic stadium in Helsinki.
The Finns led three times through goals from Jonatan Johansson (33.), Mika Väyrynen (43.) und Daniel Sjölund (53.) and almost recorded their first win ever against Germany.
Lahm's 50th game
For the third time, the German coach picked an unchanged starting line-up with Westermann und Serdar Tasci in central defence in front of keeper Robert Enke. Clemens Fritz got the nod again on the right flank with Miroslav Klose, as captain, leading the attack.
In midfield, Simon Rolfes and Thomas Hitzlsperger played in place of the injured Michael Ballack and Torsten Frings alongside Bastian Schweinsteiger and Piotr Trochowski. Left back Philipp Lahm was playing his fiftieth game for Germany.
Pasanen and Forsell in Finland's initial line-up
As expected, Finland's english coach Stuart Baxter picked Petri Pasanen of Werder Bremen in defence and Mikael Forssell of Hannover 96 as striker. He scored both of Finland's goal in 2001 as the Finns tried to qualify for the World Cup in 2002.
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September 19th, 2008 at 9:29 pm
[...] German score three, but a leaky defence poses concernsJuventus 95th Best Team In World! Daum chooses new captainGerman score three, but a leaky defence poses concernsOne touch per minute Author: admin Time: Friday, September 19th, 2008 at 6:26 am Category: Germany Comments: You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. RSS: You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Navigation: « Factors To Consider At The Battle Of The Bridge “More important than every Ruhr derby” » [...]
September 28th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
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