England 1 Germany 2:Germany, who lead Ireland's Euro 2008 qualifying group, got their way, inflicting England's first defeat at the rebuilt Wembley just as they had the last at the old ground.
There was a disturbing link across those seven years. David Seaman had been at fault for the winner then and Paul Robinson was to blame for an equaliser here. The latter could well be dropped for next month's Euro 2008 qualifying games.
England cannot be totally downcast about those fixtures against Israel and Russia. They were creative last night and saw confirmation of the gifts a formidable youngster, getting a fifth international appearance, can offer.
This fixture may not have mattered in orthodox terms but footballers can always manufacture a meaning of their own. Who could tell Micah Richards, or any home fan, there was no consequence to his impact in the ninth minute? The teenager has vastly more to achieve in life, but he will never forget what he did on an August evening at the new Wembley.
For a person destined to be a centre-half he is a most nimble full-back and he embarrassed the debutant Christian Pander with such ease that the Stuttgart defender, never suspecting the joy that awaited him , might have wished then that his leisure-time existence as a rapper were actually his real career. Richards cut inside and, just as the challenging Bernd Schneider was about to crash into him, slipped a pass to Frank Lampard.
The Chelsea midfielder's first-time drive was too fast for Jens Lehmann at the near post. It was a goal to drive out thoughts of the mundane aspects of football but it was in that routine regard that England were soon to fail.
Robinson has been such a concern to Steve McClaren that David James had been recalled and it would have been no shock had the veteran displaced the Tottenham goalkeeper in the line-up instead of taking over at the interval. Confidence is all and Robinson has been stripped of it.
He coped with Thomas Hitzlsperger's shot but when the ball was cleared to Schneider on the right the Germany captain's cross was neither caught nor pushed over the bar. Instead, Robinson tapped the ball down and Kevin Kuranyi knocked in the equaliser from a yard. Later the goalkeeper would be vulnerable when challenged by Christoph Metzelder and relieved that the centre-half was ruled offside.
England, then, had the all-too-familiar experience of knowing they had put on a good display that could have put them in command against visitors whose line-up, with the full-back Phillipp Lahm as a neat midfielder, was more experimental.
David Beckham could have been protecting his problematic ankle when he appeared to pull out of one challenge, but his worth was still felt and a few team-mates were close to connecting with a 32nd-minute free-kick, glanced on by Alan Smith, that zipped through the goalkeeper. Michael Owen, with less than half-an-hour's action hitherto logged this season, was pleasingly lively and alert.
Recognition of all that, though, was disrupted by another goal from Joachim Louw's players. Lahm, after 40 minutes, slipped a pass to Pander and his brutal drive from 22 yards ripped past Robinson.
Owen was twice near to equalising before half-time, with one attempt from an angle hitting the side-netting after Lehmann confirmed goalkeeping errors are not just an English malaise.
Thoughts of a comeback were disrupted by changes, but McClaren's team at least remained in earnest as they sought to dodge a defeat.
ENGLAND:Robinson (James, 46); Richards, Ferdinand (Brown, 46), Terry, Shorey; Beckham, Carrick (Barry, 55), Lampard, J Cole (Wright-Phillips, 70); Smith (Crouch, 57), Owen (Dyer, 57). Subs: Taylor, P Neville, Downing, Defoe, Carson.
GERMANY:Lehmann; Friedrich, Mertesacker, Metzelder, Pander; Odonkor (Hilbert, 54), Lahm, Hitzlsperger; Sneider; Kuranyi, Trochowski (Rolfes, 72). Subs: Hildebrand, Kiessling, Castro, Helmes, Tasci.
Referee:M Busacca (Switzerland).
