LONDON, 30 April 2004 — Germany suffered their worst away defeat for 65 years, Greece’s long unbeaten run ended and the Czech Republic lost again as Wednesday’s Euro 2004 warm-ups went badly wrong for some of the tournament hopefuls.
Germany were thrashed 5-1 by Romania in Bucharest, Greece were beaten 4-0 by fellow finalists the Netherlands and the Czechs lost 1-0 at home to Japan. Euro 2004 hosts Portugal drew 2-2 at home with Sweden while Italy and Spain played out a 1-1 draw in Genoa.
There was no disputing the result of the night as Romania, who failed to qualify for the European Championship, tore Germany to ribbons.The 2002 World Cup runners-up were without several leading players and had no answer as Romania raced into a 4-0 halftime lead with two goals for Ionel Danciulescu and one each for Mihaita Plesan and Razvan Rat.
Gabriel Caramarin added a fifth, with Philipp Lahm scoring Germany’s consolation in the last minute.
It was Germany’s worst result since they also lost 5-1 at home to England in a World Cup qualifier in September 2001.
Their heaviest away defeat before Wednesday was a 5-1 loss to Hungary in a Budapest friendly in 1939 — although they also suffered an 8-3 defeat by Hungary during the 1954 World Cup finals in Switzerland.
A first-half goal from Tatsuhiko Kubo gave Japan a victory that followed the Czechs’ 2-1 loss to Ireland in Dublin four weeks ago.
Kim Kallstrom put Sweden ahead against Portugal in the 17th minute and, after Luis Figo missed a penalty, Pauleta equalized for the home side in the 33rd.
Sweden regained the lead when Rui Jorge diverted a low cross into his own net five minutes from the end but Nuno Gomes spared the hosts’ blushes with an injury-time header to make it 2-2.
Russia, fielding an experimental side including 18-year-old debutant goalkeeper Igor Akinfeyev, went down 3-2 in Norway.
The home side chalked up their sixth successive win with goals by Martin Andresen, Sigurd Rushfeldt and Jan Gunnar Solli, Russia replying in the last five minutes through Vladislav Radimov and Dmitry Kirichenko.
There were emotional scenes in Italy where Roberto Baggio returned to the Italy team after a five-year absence to make his international farewell. The 37-year-old hero of Italy’s run to the 1994 World Cup final played 87 minutes before leaving the field to a standing ovation.
Spain took a deserved lead in the 53rd minute through substitute Fernando Torres but striker Christian Vieri leveled three minutes later with a thunderous header.
Greece’s impressive streak looked set to reach 16 games as they reached halftime in Eindhoven scoreless but Roy Makaay, Boudewijn Zenden and Johnny Heitinga netted for the Dutch in an 11-minute burst and Pierre van Hooijdonk grabbed a late fourth.
Two goals for striker Dimitar Berbatov and one for Zdravko Lazarov gave Bulgaria a 3-0 win over Cameroon, who arrived in Sofia only four hours before kickoff, while Croatia won 1-0 in Macedonia thanks to Ivan Klasnic’s goal.
Ebbe Sand’s header was enough for Denmark to overcome Scotland 1-0 in Copenhagen, Switzerland beat Slovenia 2-1 in Geneva for their first win of the year, and Latvia continued the build-up to their first major tournament with a 0-0 home draw against Iceland.
Of the 16 Euro 2004 hopefuls, only European champions France and England opted not to play on Wednesday.
