Straight and simple Germany's World Cup qualifying continued with a 4-0 devastation of Liechtenstein at the Zentralstadion in Leipzig. After recent disappointing friendlies against Norway and England, Joachim Löw was anxious to silence their critics and today's results Deutschland supporters breathing room over their competition.Returning to a 4-4-2 formation Herr Löw handed the 'keeping duties to Hannover 96's Robert Enke with Lukas Podolski, soon to be FC Köln's captain, paired with Stuttgart's Mario Gómez up top. Tiny Liechtenstein was plundered for a goal only four minutes after the opening whistle as Bayern München's Bastian Schweinsteiger delicate cross was volleyed into the net by Michael Ballack to volley home, giving die Mannschaft the 1-0 lead. Attacking with a vengeance it was 2-0 as Lukas Podolski's drive was too strong to hand and HSV's Marcell Jansen sent the rebound in only four minutes later. The visitors settled down after the early play and much of the action was within a air-tight midfield of Marcell Jansen, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Michael Ballack and Thomas Hitzlsperger. After the restart, the visitors were quickly victimized for two more goals; first three minutes in as Bastian Schweinsteiger took advantage of a loose ball in point-blank range and only two minutes later Poldi made it 4-0. The back line work of Serdar Tasci, Philip Lahm, 1899 Hoffenheim's Andreas Beck and Werder Bremen's Per Mertesacker was to the letter as Enke's day was disturbed with only a single attempt, that a highly unprobable attempt six minutes before the hour. In the final thirty minutes Borussia Mönchengladbach Marko Marin and Bayer Leverkusen duo of Simon Rolfes and Patrick Helmes were brought-in and although Germany had a number of attempts they could not add to their goal total and the match ended in a 4-0 victor
In a matter-of-fact manner Bastian Schweinsteiger called the result "ok" but expressed disappointment with the inability to add more goals. As Germany heads to Wales on Wednesday they will need to exhibit greater finishing ability and killer instinct for the full three points.
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