(openPR) - Whatever Germany coach Joachim Löw said to his players at half time in their friendly against Austria this week, it worked. As the stats show, the UEFA Euro 2008TM co-hosts had Germany on the ropes for 45 minutes, before goals by Hitzlsperger, Klose and Gomez re-asserted the visiting squad’s status as potential tournament winners…

In what was an entertaining dress rehearsal for the tournament's final group B game on June 16th, Austria signalled their intent early, when Christian Fuchs' shot whistled wide after just 25 seconds.

With Germany's highest ranked CPI player, forward Lukas Podolski, starting on the bench, the visitors struggled to threaten Alex Manniger's goal and when German keeper Jens Lehman failed to gather a through ball to Austria's Martin Harnik only a goal line clearance stopped the home team scoring.

Efforts from the hard-working Fuchs – who covered over 11.5km during the game – and Austria's highest ranking CPI star Joachim Standfest also went begging as Austria continued to frustrate in front of goal.

Switching play

If the first half was typified by wasteful Austrian finishing, the second was a German masterclass in taking your chances. Just seven minutes into the second half, and with Austria still edging the visitors in terms of possession, Heiko Westermann's cross was headed back out to Thomas Hitzlsperger, whose shot made it through a crowded penalty area into Manniger's net.

Hitzlsperger's goal proved to be the catalyst for Germany, who instantly took control of the game. The Castrol stats show that after the first goal, the visitors had a higher percentage of possession for all but five minutes of the second half. Returning from injury and after a slow start, captain Michael Ballack finished the game as one of Germany’s key players. By the time he was substituted three minutes from the end the Chelsea FC midfielder had covered 11.2km – further than any of his team mates.

Two more goals from Miroslav Klose and Mario Gomez sealed the 3-0 win and created a set of final team stats that make happy reading for Löw. His men made the most of their second half dominance scoring with almost one in three of their ten attempts at goal. Meanwhile, Austria's need for a top class finisher was underlined as they failed to find the net with any of their 13 shots or five corners.

If Austrian head coach Josef Hickersberger finds it tricky to lay his hands on a ten goal a tournament man though, he could do a lot worse than taking a page out of Löw's book of team talks.

(euro2008data.castrolindex.com/?language=en)

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