England–Germany football rivalry

The England and Germany football rivalry is a sports rivalry dating back to the end of the 19th century. More recently, the rivalry has been a mostly English phenomenon as the Germans consider the Netherlands to be their traditional footballing rivals. From the German viewpoint, the rivalry with England is a bit of an exaggeration as any recent head-to-head comparisons are rather lopsided in favor of the German national team.

Early encounters

File:England Tour1899.jpg

The Football Association representative touring party of 1899

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

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.

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 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'."

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."

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)."

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." 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."

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

Main article: 1966 FIFA World Cup Final

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. 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.

Germany, 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. Modern studies using film analysis and computer simulation have conclusively shown the ball never crossed the line. (Goal-directed Video Metrology). In Germany it led to the creation of the expression "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, indelibly 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; a common chant among England supporters at Germany games is "Two World Wars and One World Cup" to the tune of "Camptown Races".

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."

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 to 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."

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."

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." 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."

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."

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."

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).

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.

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.

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."

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.

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. During the game the father of German Coach Rudi Völler suffered from a heart attack inside the stadium, but was successfully resuscitated.

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." On the other hand, not all German fans were particularly concerned with the defeat, instead reveling in the Netherlands' defeat to the Republic of Ireland the same day, singing directly after the loss to England, "We're going to the World Cup without Holland."

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'."

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 managed to avoid a showdown with Germany in the Round of 16 by holding Sweden to a draw and finishing at the top of their group), and England did not qualify for Euro 2008.

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. Then in an international friendly held on November 19, 2008, England inflicted Germany's first defeat in Berlin for 35 years with a 2-1 victory.

2010 FIFA World Cup

In the 2010 FIFA World Cup both teams met in the Second Round on Sunday, June 27, at 15:00 BST/16:00 CEST & SAST, as Germany won Group D and England finished second in Group C.

Germany won the match 4-1, knocking England out and advancing into the quarter-finals. This would be the greatest defeat England ever suffered in their World Cup history. The match was not without controversy, however. In the 38th minute, a shot by Frank Lampard bounced off the crossbar into the goal and back out again. However, neither the referee Jorge Larrionda or linesman saw it pass over the line. The controversial decision drew comparisons with Geoff Hurst's goal during the 1966 World Cup Final. Had Lampard's goal counted, the score would have been 2-2 just before halftime.

All matches between England and German teams

England's goal tally is listed first.

Date	Venue	Result	Competition	Location	Winner
10-05-1930	Deutsches Stadion, Berlin	3–3	Friendly match		Draw
04-12-1935	White Hart Lane, London	3–0	Friendly match
14-05-1938	Olympic Stadium, Berlin	6–3	Friendly match
01-12-1954	Wembley Stadium, London	3–1	Friendly match
26-05-1956	Olympic Stadium, Berlin	3–1	Friendly match
12-05-1965	Frankenstadion, Nuremberg	1–0	Friendly match
23-02-1966	Wembley Stadium, London	1–0	Friendly match
30-07-1966	Wembley Stadium, London	4–2 aet	1966 FIFA World Cup
01-06-1968	Niedersachsen, Hanover	0–1	Friendly match
14-06-1970	Estadio Nou Camp, León	2–3	1970 FIFA World Cup
29-04-1972	Wembley Stadium, London	1–3	Euro 1972 qualifier
13-05-1972	Olympic Stadium, Berlin	0–0	Euro 1972 qualifier		Draw
12-03-1975	Wembley Stadium, London	2–0	Friendly match
22-02-1978	Olympic Stadium, Munich	1–2	Friendly match
29-06-1982	Estadio Santiago Bernabéu, Madrid	0–0	1982 FIFA World Cup		Draw
13-10-1982	Wembley Stadium, London	1–2	Friendly match
12-06-1985	Estadio Azteca, Mexico City	3–0	Azteca 2000 Tournament
09-09-1987	Rheinstadion, Düsseldorf	1–3	Friendly match
04-06-1990	Stadio delle Alpi, Turin	1–1 (Pens 3–4)	1990 FIFA World Cup
11-09-1991	Wembley Stadium, London	0–1	Friendly match
19-06-1993	Pontiac Silverdome, Detroit	1–2	U.S. Cup
26-06-1996	Wembley Stadium, London	1–1 (Pens 5–6)	Euro 1996
17-06-2000	Stade du Pays de Charleroi, Charleroi	1–0	Euro 2000
07-10-2000	Wembley Stadium, London	0–1	2002 FIFA World Cup qualifier
01-09-2001	Olympic Stadium, Munich	5–1	2002 FIFA World Cup qualifier
22-08-2007	Wembley Stadium, London	1–2	Friendly match
19-11-2008	Olympic Stadium, Berlin	2–1	Friendly match
27-06-2010	Free State Stadium, Bloemfontein	1–4	2010 FIFA World Cup

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 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:

Date	Venue		Result	Winner
1963-07-02	Zentralstadion, Leipzig		2-1
1970-11-25	Wembley Stadium, London		3-1
1974-05-29	Zentralstadion, Leipzig		1-1	Draw
1984-09-12	Wembley Stadium, London		1-0

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. 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. Other memorable matches were the controversial European Cup final of 1975 in which Bayern beat Leeds after the latter had penalty claims turned down by a French ref who also disallowed a goal scored by Peter Lorimer with a blockbuster from outside the area. Leeds would eventually eliminate a German team (Stuttgart) in unexpected and bizarre cirumstances. After the Germans had qualified, in the first round of the 1992-1993 competition, on the away goals rule, the return leg was awarded by UEFA 3-0 to Leeds because Stuttgart fielded an extra foreigner, thus infringing the European competition rules that were in place at the time. A replay was ordered as the aggregate stood at 3-3. Leeds won the replay at Barcelona's Camp Nou 2-1. In 2000, a young and depleted Leeds United side, managed by David O'Leary,eliminated 1860 Munich from the Champions League beating them home and away in the preliminary round before reaching the semi-final. There were also famous wins by Liverpool, Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa in European Cup semifinals or finals. These were against the likes of Borussia Moenchengladbach, Cologne, Hamburg and Bayern Munich. Liverpool's win against Borussia Moenchengladbach in Rome stands out for one special reason. It started a sequence of six consecutive English European Cup victories each time involving the elimination of a German club in the latter stages. The English hold the upperhand in club football encounters, although there were notable German wins such as Bayern's revenge over Manchester United in 2001, winning home and away, and Bayer Leverkusen's elimination of Liverpool (a rarity for German clubsides) and Manchester United in 2002, after they had received a 4-1 drubbing at Arsenal (the gunners who boast the best English record against Italian sides in the three European competitions have an unimpressive record against German opposition) in the second group phase. Both English sides exacted revenge over Leverkusen in subsequent Champions League encounters. Borussia Dortmund beat Manchester United 1-0 both home and away in the semifinal of the 1997 Champions League which they won, United having been guilty of squandering numerous chances in both legs, especially the return leg at Old Trafford.

English club victories were often celebrated in a manner which evoked memories of the War. The outspoken Brian Clough is on record boasting that he never lost to a German side and that he took satisfaction from this for what the Germans had done to his father during the war. Clough memorably led Forest to a 1-0 win in Cologne following a spectacular 3-3 draw at the City ground in the 1979 semifinal en route to Forest winning their first European Cup. The following year, a Forest side minus star player, Trevor Francis, defeated Hamburg in the final by employing an Italian style catenaccio based on dogged defence and brilliant goalkeeping by Peter Shilton. One other famous manager who never tasted defeat against the Germans was Bob Paisley who led Liverpool to three of their 5 European Cup wins and one of their two UEFA Cup wins. Liverpool have a tremendous record against German opposition, from both sides of the East-West divide, and once famously hit 1860 Munich 8-0 in an old Fairs Cup game, a treatment meted out to Hamburg (6-0) when winning the first of their three European Super Cups, the second also against German opposition in the form of Bayern Munich. Liverpool's encounters with Bayern and Borussia Moenchengladbach (known in Germany as the Gladbacher), the latter a force to be reckoned with in the 70s, are memorable. Bayern and Liverpool first met in the Fairs Cup (the forerunner to the UEFA Cup) in 1970-1971. Bayern had hit Coventry City for six in a previous round. Liverpool won the first leg 3-0 with an Alun Evans hat-trick and drew 1-1 in Munich. This was the Bayern team of Beckenbauer, Maier, Muller, Schwarzenbeck and Breitner who turned the tables on Liverpool the following year in a Cup Winners Cup second round tie, drawing at Anfield and winning 3-1 at home. The most important encounter between the two sides was in the European Cup semi-final of 1981 when a depleted Liverpool were held to a goalless draw at Anfield and then drew 1-1 in Munich. They scored in the last minutes of extra time at the Olimpia Stadion in Munich before Karl Heinz Rummenigge equalised in added time to preserve Bayern's then unbeaten home record against English opposition, even though Liverpool went through to win their third European Cup final. The two sides met again in the 2001 European Super Cup final when Liverpool, managed by Gerard Houllier, stormed to a three goal lead before Bayern scored twice towards the end to make the score more respectable. Apart from the 1977 European Cup final, Liverpool beat Moenchengladbach, who had been eliminated on penalties by the other Mersey side, Everton, in the 1970-1971 European Cup competition, in the 1973 UEFA Cup final and the 1978 European Cup semi-final. The great Gunther Netzer, now a pundit on German television, and midfield forager, Herbert Wimmer, played for Moenchengladbach in the encounters with Everton and the 1973 Uefa Cup final against Liverpool, then managed by Bill Shankly.That year Liverpool won the cup beating four German teams along the way, two from West Germany ( Eintracht Frankfurt and the Gladbacher) and two from the DDR (Dynamo Dresden, who they also beat twice in later years, and Dynamo Berlin). Borussia Moenchengladbach's two Champions League encounters with Liverpool involved Alan Simonsen, Bertie Vogts, Herbert Wimmer, Rainer Bonhof and Jupp Heynckes. Borussia would eliminate an English club in 1979 en route to winning the UEFA Cup for the second time in their history. The English club was Manchester City whose manager , Malcolm Allison, had taken over a few months earlier from Tony Book and dismantled what seemed, in the earlier rounds, to be a star studded side, to blood young wannabes.

There were memorable encounters in the other European competitions. Borussia Dortmund's wins over holders West Ham and Liverpool (final in Glasgow) in the 1966 Cup winners Cup were memorable as were West Ham's win over 1860 Munich at Wembley in the final of the same competition a year earlier, Everton's semifinal elimination of Bayern in 1985 (they went on to win the Cup Winners Cup and the league) and Gianluca Vialli's Chelsea's win over Stuttgart in the final of 1998. The UEFA Cup, which became a strong competition in the late seventies, eighties and 90s, before being devalued in recent years, threw up some wonderful Anglo-German encounters, among the most memorable of which would be Ipswich Town's victories both home and away over Cologne in the semifinal of the 1981 competition which they won, Tottenham's 5-1 aggregate mauling of Cologne in the 1974 competition and defeat of Bayern ten years later when winning the competition for the second time, debutant Watford's comeback against Kaiserslautern in the first round of the 1983-84 competition, Bayern's thrashing of Nottingham Forest 7-2 on aggregate in 1996 en route to winning the cup, debutant Norwich City's win at the Olimpia stadion in Munich before ousting Bayern at Carrow Road in 1993 and Kaiserlautern's final minutes turn around against Tottenham Hotspur, managed by George Graham, in 1999. More recently (2009) we had Hamburg's elimination of Manchester City who had earlier beaten Schalke in Germany, a team they also beat 5-1 in the quarter finals of the 1969-70 Cup Winners Cup which City went on to win. Reinhard Libuda played for Schalke at that time (1969–70) while City had the famous trio of Francis Lee, Colin Bell and Mike Summerbee. The English hold the upperhand even in these competitions. There were however some narrow escapes. Liverpool won their 1973 UEFA Cup final first leg at Anfield 3-0 only for Borussia Moenchengladbach to pull back to 3-2 on aggregate by half-time. The Reds hung on in the second half. In 1976, QPR, also making their debut, with Stan Bowles, Dave Thomas and Don Givens in their ranks, took a 3-0 lead to the Mungersdorfer Stadion in Cologne and increased their lead there only for the Germans to storm back with four goals and miss out on qualification on the away goals rule.

There were also many encounters between English league sides and clubs from the DDR which mostly ended in favour of the English sides, although these confrontations were less spectacular than those involving clubs from West Germany. Newport County, then from the English third division but representing Wales in the Cup Winners Cup in 1981, went tantalisingly close to eliminating Carl Zeiss Jena after a 2-2 draw in East Germany but lost 0-1 in the home leg after a blinding display by the East German keeper Hans-Ulrich Grapenthin. Jena made it to the final where they lost to Dynamo Tbilisi of Georgia, then part of the Soviet Union. Liverpool had three confrontations with Dynamo Dresden which they all won, including a splendid 5-1 performance at Anfield in the second round of the 1977-78 Champions Cup competition. But the most memorable performance by an English team in East Germany was arguably that of Nottingham Forest when they played Dynamo Berlin in the quarter finals of the 1979-1980 European Cup. The 1979 European Cup holders had a mountain to climb to hold on to the trophy, having lost the first leg at the City ground 0-1 to a goal by Hans Jürgen Riediger. A Trevor Francis and John Robertson inspired Forest ran riot in Berlin in the second leg as Forest triumphed 3-1. Brian Clough's Forest then went on to beat Ajax and Hamburg to retain the trophy and a different Forest side, still managed by Clough, would eventually see off another East German side, Vorwaerts Frankfurt/Oder in the first round of the 1983-84 UEFA Cup. As for Dynamo Berlin, they suffered another home defeat (1-2) in the 1981-82 European Cup to another English side, Aston Villa. They managed to register another victory (1-0)on English soil in the return leg only to be ousted on the away goal rule by Villa who went on to keep the European Cup in England for a sixth consecutive year beating Bayern Munich in the Rotterdam final. Forest cast-away, Peter Withe, scored the only goal of the game against the run of play. For most of the second half, Bayern were camped inside the Villa half, hit the woodwork, went tantaisingly close on a number of occasions but found substitute rookie goalkeeper, Nigel Spink (who replaced veteran Jimmy Rimmer after only a few minutes), in inspiring form.

Players

The rivalry between the two nations has 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), Fredi Bobic (Bolton Wanderers), Dietmar Hamann (Newcastle United, Liverpool and Manchester City), Uwe Roesler, Eike Immel and Maurizio Gaudino (Manchester City), Markus Babbel (Liverpool), Juergen Roeber (Nottingham Forest) Robert Huth (Chelsea and Middlesbrough), Thomas Hitzlsperger and Stefan Beinlich (Aston Villa), Jens Lehmann (Arsenal), Moritz Volz (Arsenal, Fulham and Ipswich Town) 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), David Watson (Werder Bremen) and Tony Woodcock (1. FC Köln and Fortuna Köln). Owen Hargreaves 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. Woodcock was also a popular figure at Cologne.

See also

• England and Scotland football rivalry
• Argentina and England football rivalry
• Germany and Netherlands football rivalry
• Argentina and Germany football rivalry

External links

• Article detailing 10 famous England v Germany matches
• Football and the Battle of Britain - analysis of Anglo-German football rivalry
• England v Germany 2010 Pre-Match
• England v Germany: The results in full.