Bern: England manager Gareth Southgate was delighted with his side’s performance in a 2-1 win over Nigeria but Germany’s Joachim Loew was angry after the world champions suffered a historic loss to Austria in Saturday’s World Cup warm-up friendlies.
Four other World Cup finalists failed to score between them as European champions Portugal drew 0-0 in Belgium and the Scandinavian derby between Sweden and Denmark also ended goalless.
Germany’s 2-1 defeat in Klagenfurt, which saw Manuel Neuer play his first game for club or country after a nine-month injury layoff, was their first against their smaller neighbours — who have not qualified for Russia — for 32 years.
Although Loew was happy at Neuer’s return, he was not at all pleased with his team’s overall effort.
“Of course, the defeat angers me,” he said. “We lost too many balls which normally doesn’t happen with us ... a lot of things were bad today.
“I learned some important things from the game. We have a lot to improve over the next 14 days.”
Mesut Ozil capitalised on a dreadful clearance by Austria goalkeeper Joerg Siebenhandl to give Germany an early lead. However, second-half goals from Martin Hinteregger, who met a corner with a stunning far post volley, and Alessandro Schoepf turned the game around.
England capitalised on an error-strewn first-half performance by Nigeria as Gary Cahill and captain Harry Kane put them ahead before Alex Iwobi pulled one back for the Super Eagles.
“That was as good a half as we’ve had,” said Southgate.
“We used the ball well and we were a threat. I liked the interchange of movement and passing between our front four.”
Southgate claimed Raheem Sterling justified his decision to protect the troubled England star despite his booking for diving against Nigeria.
Sterling had been forced to apologise to his England teammates after turning up to their training camp a day late following a flight mix-up on his way back from a holiday.
Adding to Sterling’s woes, the 23-year-old endured criticism for unveiling a new tattoo of an M16 assault rifle on his calf that he said was a tribute to his father, who was shot dead when the City star was a child.
Southgate had considered dropping Sterling for the Nigeria clash, but after what the England manager perceived as unfair criticism of the tattoo, he decided it was right to stand by his man.
Sterling partially repaid Southgate’s faith with a lively first-half display which included setting up Harry Kane for England’s second goal.
But that was overshadowed when he was booked for an embarrassing dive in a failed attempt to win a second-half penalty.
Southgate said he hadn’t clear seen the incident so he didn’t want to publicly reprimand Sterling.
“I’ve not had a chance to see that back again, it looked a very tight call from where I was sitting. He was travelling at such speed,” he said.
Nigeria coach Gernot Rohr said his side could have conceded half a dozen goals before halftime.
“What we saw in the second half was very positive,” the German said. “We cannot play like we did in the first half.”
Belgium defender Vincent Kompany hurt himself as he lunged for the ball and left the field in the second half of the match against Portugal, who rested captain Cristiano Ronaldo but were encouraged by a lively performance from Bernardo Silva.
Sweden striker Isaac Kiese-Thelin spooned a late shot over the bar with the goal at his mercy at the end of a feisty friendly against Denmark featuring plenty of direct football and a few meaty challenges.
