In the penultimate friendly international for the German national team ahead of the European Championships, a capacity crowd in Kaiserslautern saw the home nation play out a 2:2 (2:0) draw with Belarus. Torsten Frings made his return to trainer Joachim Loew’s starting eleven having been out of the German side through injury for half of the year. The Werder Bremen midfielder was eventually substituted in the 67th minute, following a solid performance, whilst centre half Per Mertesacker played the full ninety. Clemens Fritz was unable to take a place in the starting eleven due to a painful rib injury but the 28 year old gritted his teeth and joined the fray with ten minutes to go.
Germany took a 2:0 lead into the half time break thanks to goals from Miroslav Klose and a David Odonkor cross which was cruelly deflected past the Belarus keeper by his own defender. The German eleven took their foot off the gas in the second period and subsequently found themselves back on level terms with Belarus before the end thanks to a brace from Witali Bulyga (61’ / 88’).
Joachim Loew was forced to make do without the services of his fourth Green-White, Tim Borowski, for the game. The midfielder hadn’t been unable to take part in the training camp on Mallorca due to illness but the team coach stated confidently: “He has been feeling better again for a couple of days now and he was back in full training on Monday and Tuesday.”