Germany defeated Italy 4-1 at the Allianz Arena in their international friendly on Tuesday night, achieving their first victory against the Azzurri for over 20 years.
Goals from Toni Kroos, Mario Gotze, Jonas Hector and Mesut Ozil gave Die Mannschaft their first win over the Italians since 1995 while Stephan El Shaarawy netted a consolation goal for the visitors.
Both teams were attacking each other for the first 20 minutes until the opener sunk Italy’s confidence. It took 11 minutes for Julian Draxler to have the first shot of the game, which was easily saved by Gianluigi Buffon at the near post. Thiago Motta and Antonio Rudiger collided and hit each other in the head but played on after treatment.
Kroos opened the scoring for Germany in the 23rd minute, cracking a shot from outside of the penalty area after Leonardo Bonucci failed to clear the ball properly. Minutes later, Draxler’s cross flashed across goal but nobody was there to put the ball in.
Gotze extended Die Mannschaft’s lead on the stroke of half-time by squeezing in between Matteo Darmian and Alessandro Florenzi and then heading-in Thomas Muller’s cross.
Italy tried to reduce the deficit in the second half but to little avail. Montolivo controlled an Insigne cross and then shot across the goal while Giaccherini blasted over after the initial shot from Simone Zaza was blocked.
In the 59th minute, Germany went on the counterattack and Draxler laid the ball off to Hector, who ran into the box to strike the ball past Buffon. Zaza then ballooned a shot over and El Shaarawy had a free kick saved for Italy but Sebastian Rudy won a penalty after Buffon brought him down and Ozil kicked the ball into the roof of the net.
Stefano Okaka passed to El Shaarawy, who turned and then his shot was deflected into the net by Antonio Rudiger on 82 minutes. El Shaarawy tried to return the favour but Okaka shot straight at Marc-Andre Ter Stergen.
