European Football Championship 2012 / Germany

This article covers the German national soccer team at the European Championship 2012 in Poland and Ukraine . The German team has been the only one to qualify for all the finals since 1972, was the record European champion with three titles and took part for the eleventh time, making it a record participant. Since Spain was able to defend the title and thus became European champions for the third time, Germany is no longer the only record European champions.

qualification

Germany completed the qualification for the European Championship in qualifying Group A . It was the first time that Germany won all qualifying matches for a European Championship. The four following competitive games at the European Championship were all won, which, including the victory in the game for third place at the 2010 Soccer World Cup in South Africa, set a new record of 15 competitive game wins in a row.

Pl.	team	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Pt.
1	Germany	10	10	0	0	34: 07	30th
2	Turkey	10	5	2	3	13:11	17th
3	Belgium	10	4th	3	3	21:15	15th
4th	Austria	10	3	3	4th	16:17	12
5	Azerbaijan	10	2	1	7th	10:26	07th
6th	Kazakhstan	10	1	1	8th	06:24	04th

Game results

09/03/2010	Brussels King Baudouin Stadium	Belgium	-	Germany	0: 1 (0: 0)	Goal: 0: 1 Miroslav Klose (51.)
07.09.2010	Cologne Rheinenergiestadion	Germany	-	Azerbaijan	6: 1 (3: 0)	Goals: 1-0 Heiko Westermann (28th), 2-0 Lukas Podolski (45th), 3-0, 6: 1 Miroslav Klose (45th, 90th), 4-0 Rəşad Sadıqov (53rd, ET ) , 4: 1 Vaqif Cavadov (57th), 5: 1 Holger Badstuber (86th)
10/08/2010	Berlin Olympic Stadium	Germany	-	Turkey	3: 0 (1: 0)	Goals: 1-0, 3-0 Miroslav Klose (42nd, 87th), 2-0 Mesut Özil (79th)
11/12/2010	Astana Astana Arena	Kazakhstan	-	Germany	0: 3 (0: 0)	Goals: 0: 1 Miroslav Klose (48th), 0: 2 Mario Gómez (76th), 0: 3 Lukas Podolski (85th)
03/26/2011	Kaiserslautern Fritz Walter Stadium	Germany	-	Kazakhstan	4: 0 (3: 0)	Goals: 1: 0, 4: 0 Miroslav Klose (3rd, 88th), 2: 0, 3: 0 Thomas Müller (25th, 43rd)
06/03/2011	Vienna Ernst Happel Stadium	Austria	-	Germany	1: 2 (0: 1)	Goals: 0: 1, 1: 2 Mario Gómez (44th, 90th), 1: 1 Arne Friedrich (50th, ET )
06/07/2011	Baku Tofiq Bəhramov Stadium	Azerbaijan	-	Germany	1: 3 (0: 2)	Goals: 0: 1 Mesut Özil (30th), 0: 2 Mario Gómez (41st), 1: 2 Murad Hüseynov (89th), 1: 3 André Schürrle (90th)
02.09.2011	Gelsenkirchen Veltins-Arena	Germany	-	Austria	6: 2 (3: 1)	Goals: 1: 0, 2: 0 Miroslav Klose (8th, 23rd), 4: 1 Mesut Özil (47th), 3: 0 Lukas Podolski (28th), 3: 1 Marko Arnautović (42nd), 4th : 2 Martin Harnik (51.), 5: 2 André Schürrle (84.), 6: 2 Mario Götze (89.)
07/10/2011	Istanbul Turk Telekom Arena	Turkey	-	Germany	1: 3 (0: 1)	Goals: 0: 1 Mario Gómez (35.), 0: 2 Thomas Müller (66.), 1: 2 Hakan Balta (79.), 1: 3 Bastian Schweinsteiger (86.)
10/11/2011	Düsseldorf ESPRIT arena	Germany	-	Belgium	3: 1 (2: 0)	Goals: 1-0 Mesut Özil (30th), 2-0 André Schürrle (33rd), 3-0 Mario Gómez (48th), 3-1 Marouane Fellaini (86th)

preparation

There were two test matches before the EM:

May 26th, 2012 in Basel ( St. Jakob-Park )
Switzerland	-	Germany	5: 3 (2: 1)	Goals: 1: 0, 2: 0 Eren Derdiyok (21st, 23rd), 2: 1 Mats Hummels (45th), 3: 1 Eren Derdiyok (50th), 3: 2 André Schürrle (64th), 4th : 2 Stephan Lichtsteiner (67th), 4: 3 Marco Reus (72nd), 5: 3 Admir Mehmedi (76th)
May 31, 2012 in Leipzig ( Red Bull Arena )
Germany	-	Israel	2: 0 (1: 0)	Goals: 1-0 Mario Gómez (40th), 2-0 André Schürrle (82nd)

Games of Germany

EM preliminary round

At the time of the draw, the Dutch were placed second in the UEFA rankings as the head of group B, and Germany, Denmark and Portugal were drawn. Germany has an overall positive record against all group opponents. At European Championships, the balance against Denmark and Portugal is even (1 win, 1 defeat, 2: 2 goals and 1 win, 1 draw, 1 defeat, 3: 5 goals) and negative against the Netherlands (1 win, 1 draw, 2 defeats , 6: 8 goals). Portugal and Germany met for the last time in the quarter-finals of the last European Championship , which Germany won 3-2. The last game between Denmark and Germany ended 2-2. Germany last won against Denmark on March 27, 1996, followed by two defeats and a draw on August 11, 2010. The German team won the last game against the Netherlands on November 15, 2011 in Hamburg 3-0.

Preliminary group B:

All games took place in Ukraine .

Pl.	country	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Germany	3	3	0	0	005: 200	+3	09
2.	Portugal	3	2	0	1	005: 400	+1	06th
3.	Denmark	3	1	0	2	004: 500	−1	03
4th	Netherlands	3	0	0	3	002: 500	−3	00

Sat., June 9, 2012 at 9:45 p.m. in Lviv (8:45 p.m. CEST)
Germany	-	Portugal	1: 0 (0: 0)
Wed., June 13, 2012 at 9:45 p.m. in Kharkiv (8:45 p.m. CEST)
Netherlands	-	Germany	1: 2 (0: 2)
Sun., June 17, 2012 at 9:45 p.m. in Lviv (8:45 p.m. CEST)
Denmark	-	Germany	1: 2 (1: 1)

Knockout round

For the first time, the German team finished the group stage at an EM with three wins and met Greece as group winners on June 22nd in the quarter-finals. Before that, there were eight games against Greece (five wins and three draws, 17: 7 goals). The last game on March 28, 2001 as part of the 2002 World Cup qualification , Germany won 4-2 in Athens , with Miroslav Klose scoring his second international goal in his second international match. From the Greek team of this game, Giorgos Karagounis (suspended for the quarter-finals) and Nikos Liberopoulos were still in the 2012 European Championship squad of the Greeks. At a European Championship finals, the two teams only met in the last group game in 1980, which ended goalless. Despite the strong Greek defense, Germany took the lead with a 39th-minute goal from Lahm. The Greeks got chances of an attack mostly after a bad pass by the Germans and 10 minutes after the half-time break Samaras equalized. However, Germany increased the pressure on the Greeks and scored three more goals through Khedira (61st), Klose (68th) and Reus (73rd). A penalty converted by Salpingidis in the 89th minute could no longer prevent the Greeks from being eliminated.

In the semifinals, the German team met Italy, against whom they had only played twice at the European Championships, in 1988 (1: 1) and 1996 (0: 0) in the preliminary round. The last game between the two also ended in a draw on February 9, 2011 (1-1). So far, Germany's senior national team has not won a game against Italy in tournaments. The overall balance also spoke against Germany: 7 wins, 9 draws and 14 defeats, 34:45 goals. Germany last won on June 21, 1995 against Italy (2-0). Only the players who played in the successful U-21 team, which defeated Italy 1-0 in the semifinals of the U-21 European Championship in 2009, have had positive experiences against Italy .

Quarter finals

Friday, June 22, 2012 at 8:45 p.m. in Gdansk
Germany	-	Greece	4: 2 (1: 0)

Semifinals

Thursday, June 28, 2012, 8:45 p.m. in Warsaw
Germany	-	Italy	1: 2 (0: 2)

Squad

The squad includes those players who were appointed to the UEFA EURO 2012 squad by national coach Joachim Löw on May 28, 2012 . The following four players were removed from the preliminary list announced on May 7th: Marc-André ter Stegen , Sven Bender , Julian Draxler and Cacau .

There were seven players in the German squad who were U-21s in 2009 , two were U-19s in 2008 and one of the U-17s in 2009 . For the most part, the squad consists of players who are under contract in the Bundesliga . Only Per Mertesacker , Sami Khedira , Mesut Özil and Miroslav Klose were active abroad at the time of the tournament. While Per Mertesacker played for Arsenal , Khedira and Özil were active at Real Madrid . Miroslav Klose attacked for Lazio . After the tournament, Podolski moved to Arsenal.

Jersey no.	Surname	society	birth date	International matches	Länderspiel- gates	debut	Last use	EM games	Sp.	Gates	red	G / R	yellow
goalkeeper
01	Manuel Neuer	FC Bayern Munich	27 Mar 1986	31	0	0June 2, 2009	June 28, 2012		5
12	Tim Wiese	SV Werder Bremen	Dec 17, 1981	6th	0	Nov 19, 2008	Feb. 29, 2012
22nd	Ron-Robert Zieler	Hannover 96	Feb 12, 1989	1	0	Nov 11, 2011	Nov 11, 2011
Defense
14th	Holger Badstuber	FC Bayern Munich	13 Mar 1989	25th	1	May 19, 2010	June 28, 2012		5				1
20th	Jerome Boateng	FC Bayern Munich	03rd Sep 1988	25th	0	Oct 10, 2009	June 28, 2012		4th				2
04th	Benedikt Höwedes	FC Schalke 04	Feb. 29, 1988	8th	0	May 29, 2011	May 26, 2012
05	Mats Hummels	Borussia Dortmund	Dec 16, 1988	19th	1	May 13, 2010	June 28, 2012		5				1
16	Philipp Lahm	FC Bayern Munich	Nov 11, 1983	91	5	Feb 18, 2004	June 28, 2012	3 (2004), 6 (2008)	5	1
17th	Per Mertesacker	Arsenal FC	29 Sep 1984	81	1	0Oct 9, 2004	May 31, 2012	6 (2008)
03	Marcel Schmelzer	Borussia Dortmund	Jan. 22, 1988	6th	0	Nov 17, 2010	May 26, 2012
midfield
15th	Lars Bender	Bayer 04 Leverkusen	Apr. 27, 1989	9	1	06 Sep 2011	17th June 2012		3	1
19th	Mario Götze	Borussia Dortmund	03rd June 1992	15th	2	Nov 17, 2010	June 22, 2012		1
02	İlkay Gündoğan	Borussia Dortmund	Oct 24, 1990	2	0	Oct 11, 2011	May 26, 2012
06th	Sami Khedira	real Madrid	0Apr 4, 1987	32	2	05th Sep 2009	June 28, 2012		5	1
18th	Toni Kroos	FC Bayern Munich	0Jan. 4, 1990	30th	2	03rd Mar 2010	June 28, 2012		4th
13	Thomas Müller	FC Bayern Munich	13 Sep 1989	32	10	03rd Mar 2010	June 28, 2012		5
08th	Mesut Özil	real Madrid	Oct 15, 1988	38	9	Feb 11, 2009	June 28, 2012		5	1
10	Lukas Podolski	1. FC Cologne	0June 4th 1985	101	44	0June 6, 2004	June 28, 2012	1 (2004), 6 (2008)	4th	1
21st	Marco Reus	Borussia Monchengladbach	May 31, 1989	8th	2	0Oct 7, 2011	June 28, 2012		2	1
09	André Schürrle	Bayer 04 Leverkusen	0Nov 6, 1990	16	7th	Nov 17, 2010	June 22, 2012		2
07th	Bastian Schweinsteiger	FC Bayern Munich	0Aug 1, 1984	95	23	0June 6, 2004	June 28, 2012	3 (2004), 5 (2008)	5
attack
23	Mario Gomez	FC Bayern Munich	July 10, 1985	57	25th	0Feb 7, 2007	June 28, 2012	4 (2008)	5	3
11	Miroslav Klose	Lazio Rome	0June 9, 1978	121	64	24 Mar 2001	June 28, 2012	2 (2004), 6 (2008)	5	1

1. ↑ ^{a b} Status: June 28, 2012 (after the game against Italy)
2. ↑ Status: Before the EM.

Bonuses

The players of the German national team received 100,000 euros per person from the DFB by reaching the semi-finals . If they had reached the final, each player would have received 150,000 euros and if they had won the title, 300,000 euros each. UEFA paid the DFB 8 million euros as an entry fee ; for each of the three group wins he received another million; another two million euros for reaching the quarter-finals. The European Championship title would have brought the DFB 23.5 million euros from UEFA.

Awards

Manuel Neuer , Philipp Lahm , Sami Khedira and Mesut Özil were voted into the UEFA All-Star-Team of the 23 best players of the tournament. This made Germany, together with Italy, the second largest contingent.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ European Championship qualifying group A on UEFA.com.
2. ↑ DFB.de: Die Nationalmannschaft - Team ( Memento from February 3, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
3. ↑ Focus : DFB already collects 13 million: national players receive first 50,000 euros , mp / gx / dpa, June 18, 2012.