Germany silence Turkish clamour in Berlin

Two Miroslav Klose goals either side of a Mesut Özil effort gave Germany a comfortable victory in the battle of the UEFA EURO 2012 Group A pacesetters, though Turkey could not fault their support at the Olympiastadion.

Berlin's large Turkish community meant that the sell-out, 74,244-strong crowd was dominated by fans of the visiting team, but Joachim Löw's side never forgot that they were the home side, with their greater attacking endeavour rewarded. Klose headed their opener before half-time, and picked up a second three minutes from the end after Özil had made it 2-0.

With Bastian Schweinsteiger and Arda Turan absent, both sides were without key midfielders but looked no worse for that from the start, playing some stylish, short-passing football. Sami Khedira went close on 12 minutes, but Volkan Demirel caught his effort from a tight angle. The Turkey goalkeeper denied Özil soon afterwards, fending away a low shot following a lovely one-two with Khedira.

Turkey's first real chance came after 36 minutes when a long ball sent Halil Altıntop surging forward, but Holger Badstuber's challenge on the edge of the area denied him a one-on-one with Manuel Neuer. Germany then opened the scoring. Volkan managed to turn a close-range Thomas Müller header on to the crossbar from a Philipp Lahm corner, but the on-rushing Klose had no trouble nodding in the rebound.

Per Mertesacker headed just over in first-half added time, and Toni Kroos and Khedira had further chances just after the break before Neuer produced a world-class save to deny Halil Altıntop after a long, low pass from the right found him unmarked at the far post. Turkey did their best to turn up the heat as the clock ticked down, but inevitably left space for their hosts at the other end.

A warning was sounded as, following a tee-up from Özil, Lukas Podolski squandered a gilt-edged chance, but while Volkan managed to keep Khedira out again from another move, in a quick thrust forward after 79 minutes Lahm picked out Özil, and he coolly slotted home. Turkey's misery was complete when Volkan played the ball straight to Klose three minutes from the end, the striker punishing the slip to the full.