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GERMANY vs REPUBLIC of IRELAND

Match Report below

Match Stats: -

Man of the Match: Steve Staunton (Republic of Ireland)

Teams:

Germany:
                1-Oliver Kahn 
                2-Thomas Linke 
                5-Carsten Ramelow 
              21-Christoph Metzelder 
              22-Torsten Frings 
                8-Dietmar Hamann 
              19-Bernd Schneider (16-Jens Jeremies 90) 
              13-Michael Ballack 
                6-Christian Ziege 
              11-Miroslav Klose (17-Marco Bode 85) 
                9-Carsten Jancker (20-Oliver Bierhoff 75)

Republic of Ireland:
                1-Shay Given
              18-Gary Kelly (17-Niall Quinn 73) 
              14-Gary Breen 
                5-Steve Staunton (4-Kenny Cunningham 88) 
                3-Ian Harte (21-Steven Reid 73) 
                2-Steve Finnan 
                8-Matt Holland 
              12-Mark Kinsella 
              11-Kevin Kilbane 
                9-Damien Duff 
              10-Robbie Keane

Referee: Kim Milton Nielsen (Denmark)
Linesmen: Jens Larsen (Denmark) Evzen Amler (Czech Republic)

Match Report: - 

After an easy first match, Germany went into the match sitting pretty at the top of the group. The Republic of Ireland had previously played an amazing 2nd half and equalised thanks to a Matt Holland goal. 
This match proved nothing much different as the fighting Irish as they are so famously known, often pinned Germany back and hit them going forward only to be stopped by Germany's best player on the day, Oliver Kahn, who made two top draw saves to deny Damien Duff and Robbie Keane. Carsten Jancker again was having problems finding the back of the net, later substituted by Rudi Voller for Oliver Bierhoff who also didn't have an impact on the game at all. 
The opening goal was scored by the Germans as Michael Ballack put a ball in from the left and there to meet it was the hatrick hero from the previous game, Miroslav Klose, a real contender for the golden boot after just two games.
Come the second half, the Irish were fighting back, showing no signs of giving in. They piled forward and got their just rewards as Robbie Keane drew them level after 2 minutes of stoppage time. Ireland totally deserving a result as they hampered Germany and defended very well through Staunton and Breen. It was a result which the Germans should be content with as the battling Irish deserved, and perhaps should have got, more than one point.