Germany beaten 3-5 by the Swiss

Germany go into the 2012 European Championships in Poland and the Ukraine as one of the favourites to win the title, but until the tournament starts for the Mannschaft on June 9 with a Group B match against Portugal there is a lot of work waiting for coach Joachim Löw and his team.

In an international friendly this afternoon at the St.Jakobs Park in Basel, Germany suffered a 3-5 defeat at the hands of neighbours Switzerland, who did not qualify for Euro2012 and it was their first victory against Germany in 56 years.

But this Germany will have little to do with the team taking on Portugal then all eight Bayern Munich players missed this match as they only today joined the squad after their UEFA Champions League loss to Chelsea last Saturday. So it gave Löw the chance to test out a few things and he will have taken something back to work on in the next couple of weeks.

After a slow start into the game Switzerland scored two quick goals in the 21st and 23rd minute when striker Eren Derdiyok scored off Tranquillo Barnetta, both now former Bayer 04 Leverkusen players. On the stroke of halftime Germany reduced the deficit through a Mats Hummels header.

After the break Germany were finally in the game, but again the Barnetta-Derdiyok combination worked giving the Swiss a 3-1 lead, Derdiyok's third on the day. Still Germany was not beaten as they had their chances, but they needed the help from Swiss keeper Diego Bernaglio to allow André Schürrle to reduce the deficit in the 64th minute. But on the other side four minutes later young keeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen missed the ball for Stephan Lichtsteiner to simply tap in.

Only four minutes later Germany once more reduced the deficit with substitute Marco Reus pushing in the rebound, but the final goal of the night again came after another four minute gap as Admir Mehmedi also scored of another rebound. The Swiss had the last chance of the day but Gelson Fernandes' header hit the crossbar just two minutes from time.

It ended 5-3 for Switzerland, but what was most worrying about Germany were the mistakes in their defence. Surely it could be seen that Germany has been working on their physical fitness over the last couple weeks as they were not as quick as they will need to be in Poland and the Ukraine.


GERMANY
Marc-Andre ter Stegen - Benedikt Höwedes (78' Sven Bender), Per Mertesacker, Mats Hummels, Marcel Schmelzer - Semi Khedira (46' Ilkay Gündogan) - Mario Götze (78' Lars Bender) - André Schürrle, Mesut Özil (46' Marco Reus), Lukas Podolski (62' Julian Draxler) - Miroslav Klose [C] (78' Cacau)