Germany advanced to the FIFA World Cup quarter-finals after two early goals from Lukas Podolski secured a comfortable 2-0 victory over Sweden on Saturday, 24 June 2006.
Jurgen Klinsmann's team never looked back once Podolski had fired them in into a fourth-minute lead and, after the same player doubled their advantage eight minutes later, only the excellence of Sweden goalkeeper Andreas Isaksson prevented Germany winning by a considerably wider margin.
Sweden lost defender Teddy Lucic to a second yellow card after 35 minutes and their faint hopes of a comeback all but evaporated when Henrik Larsson blazed a penalty over the crossbar eight minutes into the second half.
Germany can now look forward to a quarter-final tie in Berlin next Friday against the winners of the Argentina-Mexico match, which takes place later this evening in Leipzig.
Helped by a lightning start, the hosts produced a magnificent display of attacking football to brush past a disappointing Sweden team. Germany looked the more impressive side even when all 22 players were still on the field, but once Lucic departed there was no way back for the Swedes, for whom Larsson's penalty miss merely rubbed salt in the wounds.
