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Football > Germans jump for joy after easy win
June 28, 2010

Berlin turned into a vast open-air summer party on Sunday after Germany crushed arch rivals England 4-1 to cruise into the quarter finals of the World Cup.

"Who would have thought that we would have won 4-1?" a jubilant Robert von Chameir, 28, told AFP, one of an estimated 350,000 fans who watched the match on big screens next to Berlin's historic Brandenburg Gate.

"England got scared because it was the last chance for many players. We are still young and have three World Cups in front of us.

"It was amazing. It doesn't matter who we play now, bring it on. We'll beat anybody, we're going to be world champions."

Arno Devs, 28, draped in a the black, red and gold German flag, agreed, but said that Argentina -- assuming Diego Maradona's team overcome Mexico in Sunday's other last-16 encounter -- will not be so easy.

"The result speaks for itself ... Argentina will probably be our next opponent and it will be more difficult.

"We know that they are an excellent team who can beat anybody, but we believe in ourselves and hope we can win," he told AFP.

Michael Ballack, the midfielder who would have captained Germany if he hadn't been injured playing for Chelsea, said on public television that he believed Germany must now be one of the favourites to win the World Cup.

"We put down our marker here," Ballack said.

"We have provided two of the World Cup's best performances so far and we are now one of the favourites -- if that is a good thing. We have played very, very good football so far."

The 33-year-old was surprised how weak England were.

"The English didn't stand a chance. I wouldn't have thought that there would be such a big difference (between the teams).

"We looked great, linked up really well at the front and in the first half we could have scored one or two more goals.

"We fully deserved this."

Even German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who watched part of the match together with British Prime Minister David Cameron at the G20 summit in Canada, said she was "very moved" by Germany's performance on the pitch.

"That was a great match and a great victory ... I can only congratulate the team and say: onwards!"

"Everything went well with legs and heads, so to speak," she said. "It made for a wonderful match."

The German media meanwhile was euphoric, with the Bild daily saying on its website that England's disallowed first-half goal was "revenge" for the 1966 World Cup final when a similar decision went against West Germany.

"Thank you, lads, that was unbelievable! ... Germany humiliated England."

It added: "Thank you, Mr. Referee!"
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