Germany 1:0 China

Germany 1:0 China Hosts were booed by home fans despite the win while visitors didn't lose anything. 

World Cup hosts Germany defeated China 1-0 in a friendly match with a 51st minute penalty from Torsten Frings proving the decisive goal at the AOL-Arena.

It was Germany's first clean sheet in nine games but it could not disguise some shaky moments with stand-in captain Oliver Kahn called upon to make two crucial saves against a team ranked 45 places lower in the FIFA rankings.

Klinsmann reshuffled the defence with Borussia Dortmund's Christoph Metzelder, whose career has been hindered by injuries, making his first appearance since February 2002.

In the opening exchanges Metzelder was strolling around as Germany made the running and Bayern Munich midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger forced a fine save from Li Leilei in the 29th minute.

China were far from overawed though and spurned¹ two good chances to take the lead shortly before the interval². In the 43rd minute Xie Hui was clear through on goal but curled the ball wide with Kahn forced to rush out of his goal and narrow down the angle. Sixty seconds later Kahn was called into action again with Manchester City defender³ Sun Jihai forcing a fine low save as the German backline wobbled.

The half-time interlude came to Germany's rescue and six minutes into the second half the hosts were in front. Bernd Schneider was felled by China captain Li Weifeng in the box and Frings watched with relief as his spot-kick crept past goalkeeper Leilei.

The goal visibly lifted Germany and they dominated proceedings⁴ but China rattled⁵ the post in the 76th minute with a header from Manchester United's loan to Antwerp, Dong Fangzhuo. But there was no equaliser for China who have failed to qualify for the World Cup finals and must now concentrate on hosting the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

Nevertheless, Zhu Guanghu and his team could leave the stadium with head held high while the 55,000 spectators switched from cheering the home team to booing. Many of them believed that the visitors even had better goal chances during the match though Germany dominated with more ball posession.

The match was unlikely to relieve if not intensify the criticism heaped on the German team after a poor performance Saturday in a 2-1 loss to Turkey.

"With the boos, you can see the expectations here in Germany are huge," said Germany and Bayern Munich goalkeeper Oliver Kahn. "The boys are insecure after the terrible performance in Turkey."

Germany coach Juergen Klinsmann has been attacked for his team's recent poor performances after one of the youngest teams in German history initially⁶ excited the public.

"When everyone was screaming 'Schweinsteiger', (Lukas) 'Podolski,' I said setbacks would come. Now they are learning how to handle that," Klinsmann said. "It was hard when China threw up a wall like that, but we might face two or three teams like that in group play at the World Cup."

Zhu has been trying to rebuild his team since its elimination⁷ from the 2006 World Cup last year and substituted freely.

"I am very happy about the process and the result, except for the chances we missed. It should greatly boost our confidence and morale⁸." said Zhu.

Now, his squad can come home with expectable praises and cheers back home in China.