Lukas Podolski was the star man as the German machines defeated the Three Lions 1-0 in an international friendly.

This means the former Gunner would end his international career on a spectacular note.

The striker earned his 130th cap as the Germans lined up against Gareth Southgate’s men. The 31-year old player grabbed the match-winning strike that ends Southgate’s unbeaten run – one of the things that earned his confirmation as the substantive manager of the team.

England were decent; Leicester’s Jamie Vardy disturbed the German defence, Adam Lallana showed some promise of the form that helped him surge few months ago and Eric Dier was quite impressive.

The English played a back three using Chelsea skipper Gary Cahill, United’s Chris Smalling and Burnley defender Michael Keane who Southgate decided to throw into the mix. Keane had quite a game except when he slipped under pressure from Leroy Sane. Southgate joined the growing list of managers that are open to three defenders at the back. He went with the 3-2-4-1 formation. The defenders combined quite decently but they showed promise of gelling with time.

Southgate also faced quite a dilemma in deciding to rest City duo of John Stones and Raheem Sterling. Manchester City have had quite a tough schedule playing in the league, flying out to France to battle Monaco before returning for the cracker against Liverpool, all in a few days. The boss decided to rest the duo for the WC qualifier against Lithuania. However, Germany played Sane though he seems to have had a balanced schedule at the Etihad even as he played consistently.

England were decent in the game against the world champions played at Dortmund. Podolski stole the shine as he got the match winner but overall, both sides picked up some positives from the duel.