England and Germany football rivalry

The England and Germany football rivalry is a highly competitive sports rivalry that exists between the national football teams of the two countries. Matches between the two nations often attract much media attention, public interest and comment in both countries, but especially in England. Although the footballing rivalry began in earnest after the 1966 FIFA World Cup, it was fed by non-footballing events that had taken place between the two countries in previous decades, particularly memories of the Second World War. This has given the rivalry a highly competitive and sometimes unpleasant edge, particularly in English media coverage, although players on both sides have usually attempted to downplay such negative associations.

Germany is regarded in England as one of the main rivals of the national football team, along with such nations as Scotland and Argentina. Unlike England's rivalries with those other two teams, however, the enmity is felt predominantly on the English side rather than shared, with the Germans regarding their team's traditional rivalry with the Netherlands as more important. [cite web|url=http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/sport/2007/08/22/injuries_and_withdrawals_leave.html|title=Injuries and withdrawals leave Löw German expectations|first=Raphael|last=Honigstein|publisher=Guardian Unlimited|date=2007-08-22|accessdate=2007-09-08]

Early encounters

England and Germany share an international football history dating back to the end of the 19th century. The Football Association instigated a four game tour of Germany and Austria by a representative England team in November 1899. The England team played a representative German team in Berlin on 23 November 1899. The German side lost 13-2. Two days later a slightly altered German side lost 10-2. The third and fourth matches were played in Prague and Karlsruhe against a combined Austrian and German side and were won by England 8-0 and 7-0 respectively. [cite web|title=A brief history of British-German Football|url=http://www.britishcouncil.de/wm2006/history.htm|accessdate=2006-06-05]

In 1901, a team representing Germany toured England and lost 12-0 to the England amateur team captained by G.O. Smith at Tottenham Hotspur's White Hart Lane on 21 September 1901. [cite news|url=http://observer.guardian.co.uk/englandfootball/story/0,9565,540920,00.html|title=England v Germany|publisher=The Observer|date=1930-05-11|accessdate=2006-05-29] On the 25th they played England's professionals at Hyde Park in Manchester where they lost 10-0. [cite web|title=A brief history of British-German Football|url=http://www.britishcouncil.de/wm2006/history.htm|accessdate=2006-06-05]

During World War I, an unofficial ceasefire was announced on Christmas truce, 25 December 1914. On that day, British (Allied) and German troops left the trenches and played football with each other, involving thousands of men over many miles of the front, and in some places the ceasefire lasted over a week rather than the 24 hours planned. Although this wasn't played to any particular set of rules, it is still regarded as one of the earliest examples of Anglo-German football, and is often used to question why the Great War was fought at all, when there was no apparent animosity between the two nations.

The first ever full international between the two teams was a friendly match played on Saturday 10 May 1930, in Berlin. England were 1-0 and 2-1 up in the game, but after losing a player to injury went behind 3-2 before a late goal from David Jack brought the scores to 3-3, which was how the game finished. [cite news|url=http://observer.guardian.co.uk/englandfootball/story/0,9565,540920,00.html|title=England v Germany|publisher=The Observer|date=1930-05-11|accessdate=2006-05-29]

The next match between the two teams was played on 4 December 1935, at White Hart Lane in London, the first full international to take place between the teams in England and the first since the rise to power of Hitler and the Nazis in 1933. It was also the first match to stir up particular controversy, as "The Observer" newspaper reported protests by the British Trades Union Congress that the game could be used as a propaganda event by the Nazi regime. "No recent sporting event has been treated with such high seriousness in Germany as this match... Between 7,500 and 8,000 Germans will travel via Dover, and special trains will bring them to London. A description will be broadcast throughout Germany... Sir Walter Citrine, General Secretary of the TUC, in a further letter to Sir John Simon, the Home Secretary, said that 'such a large and carefully organised Nazi contingent coming to London might confirm the impression among people in this country that the event is being regarded as of some political importance by the visitors'." [cite news|url=http://observer.guardian.co.uk/englandfootball/story/0,9565,540901,00.html|title=Visit of German footballers|publisher=The Observer|date=1935-12-01|accessdate=2006-05-29]

Of the match itself, however, which England won 3-0, the same newspaper reported the following week that: "So chivalrous in heart and so fair in tackling were the English and German teams who played at Tottenham in mid-week that even the oldest of veterans failed to recall an international engagement played with such good manners by everybody." [cite news|url=http://observer.guardian.co.uk/englandfootball/story/0,9565,540784,00.html|first=J. A. H.|last=Catton|title=Why Germany failed|publisher=The Observer|date=1935-12-08|accessdate=2006-05-29]

The next game between the two teams, and the last to be played before World War II, was again in Germany, a friendly at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin on 14 May 1938, played in front of a crowd of 110,000 people. It was the last occasion on which England played against a unified German team until the 1990s. This was the most controversial of all the early encounters between the two teams, as before kick-off the English players were ordered by the Foreign Office to line up and perform a Nazi salute in respect to their hosts. How compliant the players were with this situation has been a matter of debate, with a feature in "The Observer" in 2001 speculating that they were "perhaps merely indifferent players (who had undoubtedly become more reluctant, to the point of mutiny, by the time the post-war memoirs were published)." [cite news|url=http://observer.guardian.co.uk/englandfootball/story/0,,541528,00.html|first=Sunder|last=Katwala|title=England v Germany: a rivalry of two halves|publisher=The Observer|date=2001-08-26|accessdate=2006-05-29]

A BBC News Online report published in 2003 reported that the salute was calculated to show: "that Germany, which two months earlier had annexed Austria, was not a pariah state. The friendly game effectively helped clear the way for Chamberlain's "Peace for our time" deal with Hitler, which, in turn, led to Germany's invasion of Czechoslovakia." [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/3128202.stm|first=Jonathan|last=Duffy|title=Football, fascism and England's Nazi salute|publisher=BBC News Online|date=2003-09-22|accessdate=2006-05-29] England won the match 6-3, but according to German writer Ulrich Linder, author of the book "Strikers for Hitler", "To lose to England at the time was nothing unusual because basically everybody lost to [them] at the time. For Hitler the propaganda effect of that game was more important than anything else." [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/3128202.stm|first=Jonathan|last=Duffy|title=Football, fascism and England's Nazi salute|publisher=BBC News Online|date=2003-09-22|accessdate=2006-05-29]

The two countries did not meet again on a football pitch for sixteen years. Two German states had been founded in 1949, with the Germany national football team continuing its tradition, based in the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) from 1949 to 1990. The German Democratic Republic (East Germany) fielded a separate national football team; although the English did play some matches against them, the rivalry never developed the same edge or high profile.

In a friendly at Wembley Stadium on 1 December 1954, England won 3-1 against an under-strength (West) German side, who were at the time the champions of the world, having won the 1954 FIFA World Cup.

England won further friendlies against (West) Germany in 1956 (3-1 at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin) and 1965 (1-0 in Nuremberg). Finally, the teams met at Wembley again on 23 February 1966, as part of their preparations for the 1966 FIFA World Cup, which was to be held in England. England again won 1-0, with a goal from Nobby Stiles, and the match also saw the first appearance for England of West Ham United striker Geoff Hurst.

1966 World Cup

Both countries had a successful World Cup in 1966, and met in the final played at Wembley on Saturday 30 July 1966. This was and still is the most important match ever played between the two teams, and it was also the first time they had ever met in a competitive game as opposed to the friendly matches they had played before. It was also a highly eventful and in some respects controversial game, which created the modern rivalry between the teams.

England led 2-1 until the very end of the game, when a German goal levelled the scores and took the match into extra time. In the first period of extra time, England striker Geoff Hurst had a shot on goal which bounced down from the crossbar and then out of the goal, before being cleared away by the German defenders. [ [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMM3nW9dWvE The "Wembley Goal" England - West Germany 1966] , on YouTube] The England players celebrated a goal, but the referee was unsure as to whether or not the ball had crossed the line when it hit the ground. After consulting with his linesman, Tofik Bakhramov, the referee awarded a goal to England. Bakhramov, from the USSR, became famous and celebrated in English popular culture as "the Russian linesman", although he was actually from Azerbaijan. When England played the Azerbaijan national team in a World Cup qualifier in October 2004 — in a stadium named after Bakhramov — many England fans travelling to the game asked to be shown the grave of the official, who had died in 1996, so that they could place flowers on it, and before the game a ceremony honouring him was attended by Hurst and other footballing celebrities. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3740556.stm|publisher=BBC News Online|title=Baku memorial for 1966 linesman|date=2004-10-13|accessdate=2006-05-29]

The Germans, however, did not believe that the ball had crossed the line, with commentators such as Robert Becker of "Kicker" magazine accusing the linesman of bias because the German team eliminated the USSR in the semi-final [cite web|url=http://www.bpb.de/publikationen/YZYY7V,4,0,Die_Geschichte_der_FIFAFu%DFballweltmeisterschaft.html|publisher=Bundescentral für politische Bildung|title=Die Geschichte der FIFA-Fußballweltmeisterschaft|accessdate=2006-05-30|language=German] . Many studies using film analysis and computer simulation have taken place in subsequent decades in an attempt to finally prove one way or another whether the goal was valid. In Germany it led to the creation of the expression " [http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wembley-Tor Wembley-Tor] ", or "Wembley-Goal", a phrase used to describe any goal scored in a similar fashion to Hurst's.

England, however, scored another controversial goal at the end of extra time, winning 4-2. This goal came after fans began to spill onto the field, thinking the game was over, which should have stopped play. The goal, a third for Hurst making him the only man ever to score a hat-trick in a World Cup final, was described by BBC Television commentator Kenneth Wolstenholme in a now-famous piece of commentary, "They think it's all over... it is now!", referring to the English fans who had spilled onto the field. The expression has become a famous and celebrated part of English popular culture, indellibly linked with the game in the minds of the English public.

The 1966 final's influence on the culture surrounding the England team wouldn't end there, however. Despite playing on their home soil, England wore their away kit of red shirts, white shorts and red socks, and since then England fans have had a special affinity for their team's away kit, with retro 1966 shirts selling well in recent years.

The game is often held as having been the height of English sporting achievement, but it also created some less favourable legacies. "The schizophrenic combination of fatalistic pessimism and unbridled, jingoistic optimism which surrounds the fixture is more than a product of footballing history. 'Two World Wars and one World Cup,' is how England's crueller fans summed it up." [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/world_cup_2002/955747.stm|publisher=BBC News Online|title=England v Germany history|date=2000-10-04|accessdate=2006-05-29]

The first German victories

Two years after the World Cup, on 1 June 1968, the two teams met again in another friendly match, this time in West Germany, in which the Germans won their first victory over an English team, thirty-eight years after they had first played. The scoreline was 1-0, Franz Beckenbauer scoring for West Germany, but as Hugh McIlvanney wrote in his match report for "The Observer": "Comparing this miserable hour and a half (in which fouls far outnumbered examples of creative football) with the last great meeting between the countries is entirely fatuous. But that will not prevent the Germans from doing it. Their celebrations will not be inhibited by the knowledge that today's losers were almost a reserve team, and even the agonies of boredom they shared with us will now seem worthwhile. They have beaten England, and that is enough." [cite news|url=http://observer.guardian.co.uk/englandfootball/story/0,9565,541538,00.html|first=Hugh|last=McIlvanney|publisher=The Observer|title=Shabby revenge for West Germany|date=1968-06-02|accessdate=2006-05-29]

Far more noted and remembered, however, was the next competitive meeting between the two teams, in the quarter-finals of the 1970 FIFA World Cup in Mexico. England were 2-0 up in the game, but Beckenbauer and Uwe Seeler managed the draw the scores level at 2-2 in the second half, and then Gerd Müller scored another goal in extra time to win 3-2. England had been weakened by losing their goalkeeper Gordon Banks to illness, and also substituted Bobby Charlton, one of their leading players, while the Germans were in the midst of their comeback. As McIlvanney put it when reflecting on the loss five days later, "Sir Alf Ramsey's team are out because the best goalkeeper most people have ever seen turned sick, and one who is only slightly less gifted was overwhelmed by the suddenness of his promotion. In sport disaster often feeds upon itself but this was a sickeningly gluttonous example." [cite news|url=http://observer.guardian.co.uk/englandfootball/story/0,9565,541551,00.html|first=Hugh|last=McIlvanney|publisher=The Observer|title=Even the Scots had tears in their eyes...|date=1970-06-21|accessdate=2006-05-29]

The result was psychologically damaging for English morale — as "The Guardian" newspaper described in a 2006 feature: "Four days later Harold Wilson blamed Labour's loss in the general election on the defeat. This marked the start of two decades of German footballing dominance and England's decline." [cite news|url=http://football.guardian.co.uk/worldcup2006/story/0,,1781145,00.html|first=Mark|last=Perryman|publisher=The Guardian|title=The penalty clause|date=2006-05-23|accessdate=2006-05-29]

Two years later the teams met once more, this time in the quarter-finals of the European Championship, which were at the time held on a home-and-away basis. England lost 3-1 at Wembley on 29 April 1972 in the home leg, and on 13 May could only draw 0-0 in West Germany, being knocked out of the competition. Said "The Observer" in 2001, "England may have been robbed of the chance in Mexico.. but there were no shortage of excuses - the heat, the hostile crowd, the food which had felled Banks, the errors of Bonnetti... It was a conspiracy of fate more than a footballing defeat. In 1972, there were no excuses at all. West Germany did not just knock England out of the European Championships, they came to Wembley and comprehensively outclassed England." [cite news|url=http://observer.guardian.co.uk/englandfootball/story/0,,541528,00.html|first=Sunder|last=Katwala|title=England v Germany: a rivalry of two halves|publisher=The Observer|date=2001-08-26|accessdate=2006-05-29] McIlvanney wrote in his match report for "The Observer": "No Englishman can ever again warm himself with the old assumption that, on the football field if nowhere else, the Germans are an inferior race." [cite news|url=http://observer.guardian.co.uk/englandfootball/story/0,9565,541541,00.html|first=Hugh|last=McIllvanney|publisher=The Observer|title=England shown the way out|date=1972-04-30|accessdate=2006-05-29]

1990 World Cup

There were several friendly games played, with wins for both nations, in the 1970s and 1980s, but the next competitive match — a second round group game at the 1982 FIFA World Cup — ended in a disappointing 0-0 draw. However, when the teams next met competitively, at the 1990 FIFA World Cup, it was a rather more dramatic and eventful clash in the semi-finals, the first time England had reached that far in the competition since their win in 1966.

In summer of 1990, the process of German reunification had advanced far, with the Deutsche Mark being introduced in the East two days before the semifinals on 3 July. Unlike in previous decades, East German fans could openly support the German team of the DFB which by then had a 80+ year tradition.

The England team had started the event poorly and had not been expected to reach that stage of the competition, but in the game were able to match the stronger German team, West Germany's lead was equalised by Gary Lineker in the 80th minute. The result was thus decided by a penalty shoot-out — the England team's first — which West Germany won 4-3 after misses from Stuart Pearce and Chris Waddle. West Germany went on to beat Argentina in the final.

The match stayed heavily in the English popular consciousness not simply for the football and the dramatic manner of the defeat, but also for the reaction of star player Paul Gascoigne to receiving a yellow card. His second of the tournament, his realisation that this would see him suspended for the final should England make it prompted him to burst into tears on the pitch. Said "The Observer" in 2004, "There are half a dozen images that define this decade of change, which help to show why football widened its appeal. First, and most important, is the sight of Paul Gascoigne crying into his England shirt after being booked in the 1990 World Cup semi-final against West Germany. Unaggressive and emotional, a billboard image that helped to start an apparently unstoppable surge in popularity for the national team." [cite news|url=http://observer.guardian.co.uk/osm/story/0,,1337062,00.html|first=Brian|last=Oliver|publisher=The Observer|title=The kick that stunned football|date=2004-10-31|accessdate=2006-05-29]

Despite this rehabilitation of the image of football aided by the English national team's success in the 1990 tournament, the close nature of the defeat to Germany helped to increase the antipathy felt towards the German team and the German nation in general. Mark Perryman wrote in 2006: "How could we expect to beat mighty (West) Germany, who had only narrowly lost the final four years previously? To my mind it is the fact that we so nearly did, then lost in the penalty shoot-out that explains the past 16 years of an increasingly bitter rivalry." [cite news|url=http://football.guardian.co.uk/worldcup2006/story/0,,1781145,00.html|first=Mark|last=Perryman|publisher=The Guardian|title=The penalty clause|date=2006-05-23|accessdate=2006-05-29]

Germany reunited in October 1990. For the DFB team, few things changed apart from players previously capped for East Germany becoming eligible for the German team which was not dubbed "West" by the English anymore. This made little difference to the tone and emotion of the rivalry.

1996 European Championship

England's first match against the unified Germany since 1938 was a friendly in 1991 at Wembley, which the Germans won 1-0. Five years later, at the 1996 European Championships, England played a unified German team for the very first time in a competitive fixture, when they met in the semi-finals. As with the 1966 World Cup, the tournament was being held in England, and the semi-final was played at Wembley Stadium. England's fans and the team were confident, particularly after wins in the group stage over Scotland (2-0) and the Netherlands (4-1) and their first ever penalty shoot-out victory, over Spain, in the quarter-finals. So vivid were the memories of 1966 for England fans that a media clamour ensued for England to wear red jerseys, instead of the unfamiliar-looking indigo away kit (commonly mistaken for grey) that had been launched earlier that year (as England hadn't submitted details of any red kit to UEFA before the tournament, this was never going to be permitted, and England did wear indigo). [cite web|title=England's Away Uniform 1996|url=http://www.englandfootballonline.com/TeamUnif/Unif1996A.html|accessdate=2006-11-18]

The build-up to the game was soured, however, by headlines in English tabloid newspapers which were regarded by many as overly nationalistic, and even racist in tone, as they had been as well against Spain before the previous match. Particularly controversial was the "Daily Mirror"'s headline "Achtung! Surrender! For You Fritz, ze Euro 96 Championship is over", accompanied by a mock article aping a report of the declaration of war between the two nations in 1939. The editor of the paper, Piers Morgan, subsequently apologised for the headline, particularly as it was at least partially blamed for violence following England's defeat, including a riot in Trafalgar Square. [cite news|url=http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20050114/ai_n9695588|publisher=The Independent|title=Royal Nazi Row: Whatever you do, don't mention the war. Oops!|date=2005-01-14|accessdate=2006-05-29]

England had taken the lead in the game in only the third minute, through tournament top scorer Alan Shearer, but in the sixteenth minute Stefan Kuntz equalised, and despite many close shots and a disallowed goal from the Germans, the score remained level at 1-1 until the end of extra time. The match was settled by another penalty shoot-out, as in 1990, and although this time all five England penalty-takers were successful, so were all five German players. The shoot-out carried on to "sudden death" kicks, with Gareth Southgate missing for England and Andreas Möller scoring for Germany to put the hosts out. Germany, as in 1990, went on to win the tournament.

2000 European Championship

England and Germany were drawn to meet each other in the first round group stage of the 2000 European Championship, held jointly by Belgium and the Netherlands, with the England–Germany game taking place in Charleroi in Belgium. Before the game, held on 17 June 2000, there was trouble with incidents of violence with England fans in the town centre, although these were mostly brief and did not involve confrontations with German fans. Nonetheless, reporting of the violence did to a degree overshadow the match result in some media coverage. [cite news|url=http://football.guardian.co.uk/Euro2000/Story/0,,333897,00.html|first=Vivek|last=Chaudhary|publisher=The Guardian|title=Charleroi police deliver short sharp shocks to quell clashes|date=2000-06-19|accessdate=2006-05-29]

The match itself was a scrappy affair that lacked the drama of many of the previous encounters, with England sneaking a 1-0 win thanks to a second-half header by striker Alan Shearer. There was enthusiastic celebration of this result in England, particularly as this it was the first time that England had won a competitive match against Germany since the 1966 World Cup final. The German reaction was more pessimistic. Rounding up the German media coverage, "The Guardian" reported: "'0-1! Germany weeps. Is it all over?' asked the mass circulation "Bild" newspaper in a front-page banner headline. 'Shearer tells us to pack our bags,' wrote Berlin's Der Tagesspiegel." [cite news|url=http://football.guardian.co.uk/Euro2000/Story/0,,333725,00.html|publisher=The Guardian|title= '0-1! Germany weeps. Is it all over?'|date=2000-06-19|accessdate=2006-05-29]

In the event, both England and Germany lost their final group matches and both were knocked out in the first round, finishing third and fourth respectively in their group.

2002 World Cup qualifying

Before the 2000 European Championship, England and Germany had already been drawn together in the same qualifying group for the 2002 FIFA World Cup. England's home match against Germany was played on Saturday 7 October 2000, and was particularly significant as it was to be the last international fixture ever to be played at the old Wembley Stadium, before it was demolished and rebuilt. However, England did not get the result they would have wanted, and lost 1-0 to a German free kick scored by Dietmar Hamann. "It was the last refuge of the inadequate. Half-time neared, England were a goal down and a sizeable section of the crowd sullied the ever-dampening occasion. 'Stand up if you won the War,' they sang", wrote journalist Ian Ridley in his match report for "The Observer". [cite news|url=http://observer.guardian.co.uk/englandfootball/story/0,9565,541589,00.html|first=Ian|last=Ridley|title=Keegan's shambles|publisher=The Observer|date=2000-10-08|accessdate=2006-05-09]

The result prompted the immediate resignation of England manager Kevin Keegan, and by the time the return match was played at the Olympic Stadium in Munich on 1 September 2001, England were now managed by their first ever foreign coach, Sven-Göran Eriksson. Expectations on the English side were low, but they surprisingly won the game 5-1 with a hat-trick from striker Michael Owen, and eventually qualified for the World Cup as the winners of their group.

Many Germans were shocked by the size of the defeat, with former striker Karl-Heinz Rummenigge stating that "I have never seen such a terrible defeat... This is a new Waterloo for us." [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/world_cup_2002/1521144.stm|publisher=BBC News Online|title=Germans stunned by 'new Waterloo'|date=2001-09-01|accessdate=2006-05-29]

The English press, by contrast, was ecstatic, and the tabloid newspapers drew comparisons with the Second World War, perhaps showing that the conflict still loomed large in the public consciousness of the nation. Reported the BBC: "'Blitzed' screams the front of the "Sunday Mirror", while the "News of the World" picks up on a similar and familiar theme with the headline 'Don't mention the score'." [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/front_page/1520322.stm|publisher=BBC News Online|title=England's dreaming|date=2001-09-02|accessdate=2006-05-29]

At the 2002 World Cup finals in Japan and South Korea, it was Germany who enjoyed more success, finishing second. England were only able to reach the quarter-finals. Both teams were defeated by the competition winners, Brazil.

After 2002

The two teams did not meet in the next major contests, UEFA Euro 2004 and 2006 FIFA World Cup.

England and Germany next played on 22 August 2007, in a friendly at the newly-rebuilt Wembley Stadium. England lost the match 2–1, their first defeat at the new Wembley. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/internationals/6954720.stm|title=England 1-2 Germany|publisher=BBC News Online|date=2007-08-22|accessdate=2007-08-27]

All matches between England and German teams

:"Scores and results list England's goal tally first. "

Of 27 games played against Germany, England won 14 (8 of them up to 1966), while Germany won 10, and also won both penalty shootouts that followed two of the 6 draws.

Note: Since 1908, Germany is represented by the German Football Association (DFB) which fields the Germany national football team. During German division (1949-1990), the team of the DFB based in Frankfurt, Federal Republic of Germany was colloquially called West Germany. Also, different flags were applied:
* Germany (Kaiserreich) (until 1919)
* Germany (Weimar Republic) (1919-1933)
* Germany (Third Reich) (1933-1945)
* Germany (since 1949, called until 1990 by some flagicon|West Germany "West Germany" )

East Germany's team

England played four Friendly matches against the East Germany national football team which was fielded by the DFV in the German Democratic Republic which existed from 1949 to 1990:

Club level

As well as the rivalry between the national sides, English and German club teams have also met on numerous occasions in the various European club competitions. Perhaps the most noteworthy encounter was the 1999 UEFA Champions League Final between Manchester United and Bayern Munich, during which the English club were trailing 1-0 until injury time, then scoring two goals to win 2-1. This result was celebrated by many in England who were not United fans as being another English victory over Germany. [cite web|url=http://archives.tcm.ie/irishexaminer/1999/05/28/phead.htm|publisher=Irish Examiner|title=Tabloids run riot on night of triumph for United|date=1999-05-28|accessdate=2006-06-14] There were, however, also many fans of rival teams in both countries — such as those of Manchester United's bitter rivals Liverpool in England — who would have been much happier to see the other country's team win, such is the strength of feeling in domestic club rivalries.

Players

The rivalry between the two nations have not prevented their respective nationals from playing in each other's domestic leagues, in certain cases to high renown. Many German players have played in England, including Bert Trautmann (who played for Manchester City), Jürgen Klinsmann (Tottenham), Christian Ziege (Liverpool, Middlesbrough and Tottenham), Karlheinz Riedle (Liverpool and Fulham), Dietmar Hamann (Newcastle United, Liverpool and Manchester City), Markus Babbel (Liverpool), Robert Huth (Chelsea and Middlesbrough), Thomas Hitzlsperger (Aston Villa), Jens Lehmann (Arsenal), Moritz Volz (Arsenal and Fulham) and Michael Ballack (Chelsea).

Trautmann was voted Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year in 1956 for continuing to play in goal for Manchester City in the 1956 FA Cup Final despite a neck injury. Klinsmann was voted the same accolade in 1995 while playing for Tottenham, where he pioneered the 'diving' goal celebration.

Far fewer Englishmen have played in Germany, the most famous being Kevin Keegan (Hamburger SV) and Tony Woodcock (1.FC Köln and Fortuna Köln). Owen Hargreaves, currently a member of the English national side, played for Bayern Munich for seven seasons before transferring to Manchester United in 2007.Keegan was twice European Footballer of the Year and a European Cup finalist during his time at Hamburg, where the German public nicknamed him "Mighty Mouse", after a cartoon hero, because of his prolific scoring, his height (or lack thereof), his high level of mobility, and his ability to turn sharply and often while running at high speed, in a manner resembling the 'scampering' of a mouse. Woodcock was also a popular figure at Cologne.

Notes

ee also

*Argentina and England football rivalry
*Germany and Netherlands football rivalry

External links

* [http://observer.guardian.co.uk/englandfootball/story/0,9565,541582,00.html England v Germany: The results in full] .
* [http://www.midfielddynamo.com/matches/10_englandgermany.htm Article detailing 10 famous England v Germany matches]