Germany and Ireland are the first teams to
play their second game in the tournament.
A win for Germany would have guaranteed them a
place in the Second Round, but Ireland didn't follow
the script.
The game started with the Irish fans singing a
rendition of "Come on You Boys in Green," as Ireland pushed forward to test the
confidence of the Germans -- who smashed eight goals
past Saudi Arabia.
Steve Staunton had the job of keeping an eye
on the tournament's leading goalscorer, Miroslav Klose. Klose didn't seem daunted at all
and made a couple of early runs to the Irish goal-line, even coming close to a penalty
appeal -- much to Staunton's displeasure.
-- GOAL -- 1-0 Klose soon had his fourth goal of the tournament, getting another clean
header on to a long ball from Ballack, and performed his trademark somersault -- 19 mins.
As much as Ireland tried to break down Germany
in the first-half, they found their opponents too resilient.
The boys in green seemed to run out of ideas
and played the ball around the back as if they were the team in front.
Ireland's most promising player of the half
was probably Damien Duff but the clear winners so far are once again the deadly duo of
Ballack and Klose.
Half-time: Germany 1 --
Ireland 0
Rudi Völler didn't look too impressed with
his team's second-half performance. The Irish fans sensed they might be getting back into
the game and let the boys in green know it.
One hour gone and the Irish were still in with
a chance of a draw -- if, in the words of Mick McCarthey: "Germany are not better
than Cameroon or Holland."
A collection of substitutions from both sides,
late in the second-half, failed to eat up the minutes for Germany as Ireland struck late
to keep their World Cup dreams alive.
-- GOAL -- 1-1
Germany paid the price for thinking the game was already won and suffering a lack of
concentration at the back, as Robbie Keane slipped through Linke and
Ramelow to smash a drive past Ollie Kahn's left ear.
Player of the Match:
Robbie Keane -- For the equaliser, just before the final whistle, that kept Ireland's goal
of at least a Second Round place on track.
Yellow Cards:
No yellow cards.
The Teams:
Germany:
1 Oliver Kahn; 2 Thomas Linke, 21 Christoph Metzelder, 6 Christian Ziege; 13 Michael
Ballack, 22 Torsten Frings, 8 Dietmar Hamann, 5 Carsten Ramelow, 19 Bernd Schneider (16
Jens Jeremies -- 90 mins); 9 Carsten Jancker (20 Oliver Bierhoff -- 75 mins), 11 Miroslav
Klose (17 Marco Bode -- 85 mins).
Rep. of Ireland:
1 Shay Given; 14 Gary Breen, 2 Steve Finnan, 3 Ian Harte (21 Stephen Reid -- 74 mins), 18
Gary Kelly (17 Niall Quinn -- 73 mins), 5 Steve Staunton (4 Kenny Cunningham -- 88 mins);
8 Matt Holland, 11 Kevin Kilbane, 12 Mark Kinsella; 9 Damien Duff, 10. Robbie Keane.
