Published: 19 November, 2013
by PAUL COWLING at WEMBLEY STADIUM

International Friendly
England 0 Germany 1 (Mertesacker 39)

ENGLAND last lost back-to-back home matches in 1977, but they did so again at Wembley tonight as Arsenal's Per Mertesacker's headed goal secured a comfortable 1-0 victory for old rivals Germany.

Roy Hodgson made nine changes from the side that was well beaten by Chile the previous Friday, but England toiled against a German side, who themselves were missing the likes of Mertesacker's club team mate Mesit Özil.

Engand worked hard but lacked quality; Germany strolled around Wembley in third gear and defended superbly the few times when they needed to.

Germany have strength in depth to field three teams, and each time they would beat England.

Roy Hodgson summed up the quality of the visitors after the match: "Where Germany were superior was in the quality of their passing and in their finishing around the final third. I thought we let ourselves down in that area and that was a disappointment.

"The major disappointment was that we didn't show the quality I was hoping for."

That was pretty clear. England didn't even manage a single shot on target in the entire game, while you always sensed that Germany only needed the one goal to win the match.

That duly happened on 39 minutes, and yet again it was down to abject England defending.

Ironically the much maligned Joe Hart had just made a point blank save to keep out a Mertesacker header, but after the resulting corner wasn't cleared properly, up jumped Mertesacker again to send another bullet to the far left of Hart.

It was almost as if England's outfield players were still congratulating Hart, and weren't prepared for Toni Kross's pinpoint cross to the 6ft 6 Gunners giant.

It didn't help that 6ft4 Chris Smalling might as well have been sitting in a comfy chair – Smalling was lost completely for the goal.

The only plus point for Hodgson and England, was the performance from Hart, who also saved well from Marco Reus and Mario Gotze as Germany looked to add to their tally.

At the other end, Germany's debut keeper Roman Weidenfeller didn't have to make a single save. England's best – and only chance – in the first half, was a Steven Gerrard long rage effort that dipped over the bar.

In the second half, the Germans picked up the tempo  quite possibly because it was too cold to stand around and swat England's tepid attack of Wayne Rooney and Daniel Sturridge.

Sturridge had a good chance when put through by his club team mate Jordan Henderson, but the Liverpool striker, on fire on the Premier League, suddenly had the touch of a Sunday pub league player and the chance was gone.

Then there was England's only real bright moment. On 56 minutes, Andros Townsend made one of his trademark Tottenham runs, running at pace and cutting inside before delivering a fierce left foot shot that beat Weidenfeller, but struck the post.

Despite this second straight set-back, Hodgson remained upbeat – almost defiant after the match:

"I'm not prepared to accept for one minute that two friendly defeats in which I have used a lot of players in two tough games is going to take the shine off what has been a very good year," said Hodgson.

"It has been a great year for the Football Association on their 150th anniversary and it's been a great year for me because we have qualified for the World Cup.

But England should write off next year's World Cup. It will all be about damage limitation.

Take a look at all the other qualifying nations – almost all of them could beat England right now – and probably next summer.

Germany were in this position once after Euro 2004, but they have turned it around to make themselves that irresistable force once again.

Hodgson was asked by a German journalist what England were doing to improve their fortunes.

"We are concerned. But we have a very good U21 side, and we hope in the future to produce more players from our academies and get them into the international team."

A promising nucleus of young players: Luke Shaw, Ross Barkley, Adam Lallana, Saido Berahino, and a more experienced, injury-free Jack Wilshere –  could be what England need to make a good showing at the next European Championships – in France in 2016.

Right now though, the players and the 85,000 fans who flocked to Wembley would have seen the way the Germans play, and would have had envy as  green as the shirts of the Die Mannschaft.

England: Hart; Walker, Smalling, Jagielka, Cole (Gibbs 51); Townsend, Gerrard (Henderson 56) , Cleverley (Wilshere 64), Lallana (Lambert 76); Sturridge, Rooney (Barkley 71) Subs not used: Ruddy, Johnson, Baines, Cahill, Milner, Lampard, Defoe, Rodriguez, Forster
Attendance: 85,934