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LONDON - Germany maintained their Wembley soccer hoodoo over England on Thursday, coming from behind to win 2-1 in an entertaining friendly.
The visitors became the first team to beat England in the rebuilt stadium after first-half goals from Kevin Kuranyi and debutant Christian Pander cancelled out Frank Lampard's early opener.
Germany, who also won the last match played in the old stadium in October 2000, recorded their sixth victory over England since 1972 including the penalty shootout win at Wembley in Euro 96.
"It's always fantastic to win in England," said keeper Jens Lehmann.
"We were the last team to win here and now we're the first to win here. That's special."
Germany coach Joachim Loew was without most of his first choice team, captain Michael Ballack heading a long injury list that also contained Bastian Schweinsteiger, Miroslav Klose and Lukas Podolski.
England, also missing several players including Steven Gerrard, Wayne Rooney and Owen Hargreaves, opened the scoring after good work by teenage right-back Micah Richards after nine minutes.
Richards beat Pander to set up Lampard and the Chelsea midfielder lashed the ball past Lehmann for his 13th international goal on his 56th appearance.
Germany levelled after 26 minutes when keeper Paul Robinson parried a cross by captain Bernd Schneider and Kuranyi tapped the ball in for his fifth goal in six matches since returning to the team after being dropped for last year's World Cup.
Pander put Germany in front five minutes before halftime when he powered an unstoppable 25-metre left-foot shot past Robinson.
England carried the game to Germany after the break and went close to an equaliser in the 66th minute when David Beckham, winning his 97th cap, crossed for substitute Kieron Dyer to shoot wide from close range.
Kuranyi went close for Germany again and Michael Owen, lacking sharpness after his long injury lay-off, worked hard to find an equaliser for England but there were no goals in the second period.
With so many first team players absent from both sides, the match gave few pointers to their forthcoming Euro 2008 qualifiers.
- REUTERS
