Germany beat Kazakhstan 4-1, close in on World Cup qualification

After Friday nights 3-0 win against Kazakhstan away in Astana, Germany scored a 4-1 win at home in Nuremberg against the same opponent in the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers yesterday to pick-up maximum six points from the March matches to take a giant step towards World Cup qualification.

Germany coach Joachim Löw had to make some adjustments due to injuries to defender Benedikt Höwedes and teenager Julian Draxler plus a yellow card suspension of Bastian Schweinsteiger with Jérôme Boateng, Ilkay Gündogan and Marco Reus coming into the starting eleven.

Germany were in control from the start but their finishing at the start wasn't upto the mark or a Kazakh was able to block the attempts. Things changed in the 23rd minute as Marco Reus gave Germany the lead and in four minute intervals his Borussia Dortmund team mates Mario Götze and Ilkay Gündogan made it 3-0 for Germany with Kazakhstan staring at a heavy defeat. The central Asians were able to keep the score at 0-3 at the break.

Only seconds into the second half the German defence made a blunder which forced goalkeeper Manuel Neuer into risky ball which enabled Heinrich Schmidtgal to score into an empty net. Suddenly Germany lost their game and presence, and they again needed 15 to 20 minutes like in the first session to get their game together. Thereafter it was once more one-way traffic though the woodwork and the Kazakhs were always in the way.

In the end a late minute goal from Marco Reus sealed the match in Germany's favour, who won 4-1 in the end.

MATCH STATS

Germany 4-1 (3-0) Kazakhstan - Goals: 1-0,4-1 Marco Reus (23',90'), 2-0 Mario Götze (27'), 3-0 Ilkay Gündogan (31'), 3-1 Heinrich Schmidtgal (46')

Germany
Manuel Neuer - Philip Lahm, Per Mertesacker, Jérôme Boateng, Marcel Schmelzer - Sami Khedira, Ilkay Gündogan - Thomas Müller, Mesut Özil, Marco Reus (90' Marcell Jansen) - Mario Götze

Kazakhstan
Sidelnikov - Gorman, Dmitrenko, Mukhtarov, Kirov - Nurdauletov (46' Dzholchiev) - Konysbaev (78' Shomko), Korobkin, Engel, Schmidtgal - Ostapenko (64' Kukeyev)

Referee
Halis Özkahya (Turkey)