Euro 2020: Germany crush Latvia 7-1 in strong dress rehearsal

Germany scored five first-half goals on the way to a 7-1 demolition of Latvia on Monday, completing a successful dress rehearsal for their European Championship campaign starting next week.

With Manuel Neuer becoming the first German keeper to reach 100 caps, the hosts were firing on all cylinders from the start and set a dizzying pace, Thomas Mueller and Kai Havertz going close in the opening 90 seconds.

Also read: Pessina replaces injured Sensi in Italy squad for Euro 2020

Champions League winner Havertz then played a perfect one-two with Robin Gosens who fired home in his first international in the 19th minute.

Goals from Ilkay Gundogan and Mueller quickly made it 3-0, the latter scoring his first goal since his return to the team last month following more than two years out.

The Germans showed none of the conversion problems that had plagued them in recent years and Havertz added another when his shot was deflected into the net by Latvia keeper Roberts Osols.

Serge Gnabry also got on the scoresheet on the stroke of halftime, firing in from a superb Mats Hummels cross before substitute Timo Werner flicked in five minutes after the restart to make it 6-0.

Latvia grabbed a consolation goal through Aleksejs Saveljevs' fierce left-foot strike before Leroy Sane restored the hosts' six-goal advantage with a simple tap-in.

Germany kick off their Euro 2020 group matches against world champions France in Munich on June 15. They also play European champions Portugal and Hungary in Group F.

(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann, editing by Ed Osmond)