Ozil bags brace as Germany ease past Faroes
Reuters - Friday 07 September 2012, 22:23
Mesut Ozil scored twice
as Germany began their World Cup qualifying Group C campaign
with a predictable 3-0 win over a defensive disciplined but
extremely limited Faroe Islands on Friday.
There was early drama as Faroes goalkeeper Gunnar Nielsen
kept the hosts at bay for almost half an hour with some heroic
saves and a hint of desperation was creeping into the Germans'
play before Mario Gotze broke through.
After that Germany relaxed, stroked the ball around, often
at walking pace, and completed the win with two Ozil goals in
the second half.
The game was largely played in near silence, broken only by
a monotonous drum-banging in the background, and even the goals
brought only muted cheers from the crowd.
Germany coach Joachim Low said his team were still wasting
too many chances, one of their weaknesses as Euro 2012 in which
they lost in the semi-finals.
"We had five or six really good chances in the first half
and our problem was that we missed too many of them, something
we have done in other games," said Low.
Ozil said patience had been important.
"We wanted an early goal and we missed chances we would
normally have put away but we must be satisfied with the
result," he said.
Nielsen made excellent saves to defy Sami Khedira and Marco
Reus as the opening exchanges resembled an attack-versus-defence
training session.
Gotze settled German nerves in the 28th minute when he
collected the ball around 30 metres from goal, weaved his way
between the Faroe defenders and rolled the shot just inside the
post from 12 metres.
A rare Faroes Islands attack led to Germany's second in the
54th minute. The hosts broke out of defence, Thomas Muller
crossed from the byline and Ozil side-footed the ball into the
net from 12 metres.
The Real Madrid midfielder provided another neat finish in
the 72nd minute when Reus slipped the ball to him and he clipped
the ball past Nielsen from inside the area.