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| Germany cruise past Hungary |
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Germany put in a convincing performance in their World Cup warm-up match against Hungary on Saturday night, winning 3-0 in Budapest.
Lukas Podolski put them ahead with a penalty in the fourth minute and only a string of saves from Gabor Kiraly prevented them from leading by a greater margin at the break.
Goals from Mario Gomez and Cacau in the second half gave the result a more realistic feel as a dominant Germany came away with a morale-boosting victory a week before they jet out to South Africa.
Podolski, who scored just twice for Cologne in the Bundesliga last season, showed how he transforms when he pulls on a Germany shirt as he tested Kiraly with a powerful drive in the third minute.
The Hungary goalkeeper was in for a busy night and he passed his first test by tipping the ball over, but he was let down by his team-mates from the resultant corner when Sandor Torghelle pulled down Per Mertesacker inside the penalty area.
Podolski stepped up to place his penalty into the top corner to give Joachim Low's side the lead.
A good combination between Mesut Ozil and Piotr Trochowski led to a shot from the former being saved by Kiraly, who denied the Werder Bremen winger again moments later.
Kiraly made further saves to deny Miroslav Klose and Ozil again as Hungary held on desperately until half-time.
Low made several changes to his side at the break and one of his substitutes Gomez scored with practically his first first touch of the match.
He was sent through by another substitute, Marko Marin, and managed to just poke the ball into the bottom corner as Kiraly raced from his line in the 69th minute.
Gomez was on target five times in a midweek 24-0 victory over a local amateur team in Germany's training camp in Sudtirol and showed he is desperate not to be one of the two names dropped by Low to form his final 23-man squad next Tuesday as he set up the third.
His pass sent Cacau through and the Stuttgart striker rounded Kiraly before placing the ball into the empty net to boost his chances of boarding the flight to South Africa.
And Low's task in trimming his squad will be made all the harder after Marcell Jansen, Marin, Trochowski and debutant Holger Badstuber all made good impressions.
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