London, Aug 11: Germany have finally managed to beat Brazil for the first time in 18 years. Bastian Schweinsteiger, Mario Goetze and Andre Schuerrle all struck in the last half hour for Germany in a 3-2 home win over the south American nation.

In another international friendly on Aug 10, World Champions Spain were beaten 2-1 by Italy. Meanwhile, France too were held to a 1-1 draw by Chile in Montpellier.

In their first encounter since 2005, Germany started off in a jaded manner but drew the first blood through a a hotly-disputed penalty which Schweinsteiger converted. They soon made it 2-0 when Goetze blazed through the Brazilian defence six minutes after the first goal.

Brazil fought back through Robinho who successfully converted a penalty to make it 2-1.

But it was a night when Germany could do no wrong. Schuerrle increased the lead to 3-1 leaving Brazil a lot of ground to cover. However they could manage only one more through Neymar before the stoppage time losing the match 3-2.

A visibly disappointed Menzes, the coach of Brazil later said, "Since I took over the national team one year ago, this is the first time we have played a team who have been better than us over the 90 minutes."

And added, "At the moment, they (Germany) are better than us and they are a measuring stick. This is where we have to get, this is what we have to overtake."

In some other matches, Australia got past Wales 2-1 in Cardiff while Japan hammered South Korea 3-0. Portugal ripped apart Luxembourg 5-0.

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