Germany hammered Ireland in Dublin behind a braces from Marco Reus and Toni Kroos, along with goals from Mesut Özil and Miroslav Klose.
Ireland vs. Germany: Final score 1-6, Germans humiliate Ireland in Dublin
Ireland were overmatched and overwhelmed in Dublin tonight by a superior German side
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Ireland were perky for the first 15 minutes, putting some pressure on Germany but they didn't capitalize and Germany settled down. Germany were denied a clear penalty in the 30th minute after John O'Shea yanked down Marco Reus in the box, but the referee was way out of position and showed a yellow card to Reus for diving. Just a horrible decision by the official that left Reus laughing in disbelief.
Of course the best way to deal with that is just go score a goal anyway, which Reus did roughly two minutes later. After Marcel Schmelzer’s ball in to the box was not cleared by Ireland, a lurking Reus charged up and buried a lovely shot over the right shoulder of Kieren Westwood to give Germany a 1-0 lead.
Reus was clearly still displeased by the earlier card and punished Ireland again in thr 40th minute. Mesut Özil absolutely abused James McCartthy in the midfield to start a break, before sending a pass to Jerome Boateng on the right wing. Boateng picked out Reus with a great cross-field pass and Reus beat Westwood with a low, laser beam shot that snuck in side the far post.
Germany extended their lead to 3-0 in the 55th minute thanks to a penalty kick goal by Mesut Özil. Germany won the penalty after Irish defender Darren O'Dea needlessly tackled Miroslav Klose late and from behind in the box. O'Dea saw yellow and Germany iced the game. Klose got in on the fun a couple minutes later, dancing around Westwood and scoring on an extremely acute angled shot to make it 4-0.
It just kept getting worse for Ireland. Toni Kroos scored to make it 5-0 on a lovely volley shot off a poor attempted clearance by John O’Shea. Kroos scored again in the 83rd minute to further humiliate the Irish.
Andrew Keogh scored a stoppage time goal on the last kick of the game, giving Ireland a hardly helpful consolation goal and thoroughly annoying Manuel Neuer who lost his clean sheet.
Many Ireland fans were already upset with Giovanni Trapattoni’s squad selection and tactics before today, this result clearly will not help to improve their opinions.
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