The Germans had already beaten England away, and really only needed a draw to win the Group and automatically qualify. Based on a decent performance in Hungary, everybody felt that although the match would be tough, a draw or even a win was the likely outcome. As for the English, they were cautiously optimistic. Their new coach Sven Goran Eriksson had seemingly rejeuvenated the moribund English game.

And actually things didn't start out too bad for the Germans. Only needing a draw, the Germans opened up pressing, and were rewarded by an early goal from carsten Jancker. However, rather than calm things down, the Germans seemed to get more nervous. It was Michael Owens, who was running rampant through the German defense (particularily making Nowotny and the worthless Linke look bad) that totally got the Germans out of their game. And Owens of course pounced upon the equalizer. The English seemed to be getting stronger as the game progressed, and the Germans more tentative and nervous. David Beckham was living up to his reputation as a superb midfielder, running rings around his clueless German counterparts. The Ennglish defense had the unimaginative German attack under control as well. Then a nice shot by Steven Gerrard stunned the crowd just before the half-time whistle.

The Germans were totally shellshocked, and a quick goal by Owen right after the half led to an almost immediate an total collapse of the German game. Up until that instant, they still had decent prospects of holding the game, but after Owen's 2nd goal, the German midfield and defense totally disintegrated. It was an unbelievable spectacle, watching the English players run through the German defense as if they were playing an AYSO team. The effort was almost as laughable as the disgraceful loss to the USA some two years ago. (0-3, game no. 673 ).

That the English scored another couple of goals should come as no surprise. The German commentators accurately sum up this whole display: "Armes Deutschland!"