Terry gives England historic Berlin victory

(CNN) -- England captain John Terry made up for a nightmare error with a late headed winner to give his side a 2-1 victory away to Germany in a friendly on Wednesday.

The Chelsea center-back climbed above defender Heiko Westermann to launch himself at Stewart Downing's 84th-minute free-kick and inflict Germany's first defeat in Berlin since 1973.

Terry had been largely at fault for Germany's equalizer 20 minutes earlier, allowing substitute Patrick Helmes to pounce as he tried to shepherd the ball back to replacement goalkeeper Scott Carson.

It was a traumatic return to the international stage for Carson, who came on for David James at halftime and whose blunder against Croatia at Wembley 12 months ago helped end England's hopes of qualifying for Euro 2008.

Terry's defensive partner Matthew Upson had given England a first-half lead when he stabbed home from close range in the 24th minute after Germany goalkeeper Rene Adler flapped ineffectually at Downing's corner.

It represented a fifth successive victory for Fabio Capello's England team, who have a perfect record in World Cup qualifying for the 2010 tournament in South Africa.

The result avenged England's 2-1 defeat at Wembley in August 2007, and gave the visitors a 15-10 winning margin in 31 encounters with the Germans.

Capello gave striker Gabriel Agbonlahor his debut at the Olympic Stadium, nine months after being first called up into an England squad by the Italian.

The Aston Villa player was a constant threat with his pace as he started up front alongside Jermain Defoe.

Capello started with only three first-choice players remaining from the victory in Belarus, while Germany counterpart Joachim Loew also fielded a young, experimental team.

Capello was delighted that the likes of Downing and Agbonlahor put their hands up for a place in his first-choice team.

"I'm very happy for these problems," he told ITV1. "This is no problem for me, we have time to decide when we do the next squad. I'm very happy because today I saw some players play very well and I needed to know them better.

"The result is important but the performance was very good because we played here against Germany, a good team, played very well and had a lot of chances to score. I like the attitude of the team, they played with confidence and personality."

"England were better," Loew said. "We were caught on a bad day. We deserved to lose. We had no organization, we lost too many balls, our passing game was bad, we were not aggressive, we did not cover well.

"They were always dangerous in dead-ball situations. Our young players did not have the maturity to beat England today."

Agbonlahor put Defoe free early on, but the Portsmouth striker saw his shot blocked by the feet of Rene Adler before being ruled offside.

James struggled to clear a low center by Poitr Trochowski then at the other end Upson took advantage of Adler's error to net his first goal in 12 international appearances after two consecutive corners.

Shaun Wright-Phillips became the first player to be yellow-carded after 29 minutes for a challenge on Jermaine Jones, but striker Miroslav Klose headed Trochowski's resulting free-kick over the bar.

Westermann's header from a Bastian Schweinsteiger free-kick flashed past James' post, then the Germans needed to defend well to thwart promising moves involving Wright-Phillips and then Agbonlahor.

At halftime, Capello brought on West Brom's Carson and in-form Tottenham striker Darren Bent in place of James and Defoe, who suffered a slight calf injury. Loew replaced Adler, Jones and Klose with Tim Wiese, Marko Marin and Helmes respectively.

Bent should have made it 2-0 when he beat the offside trap to collect Gareth Barry's superb throughball, but he slipped after rounding Wiese and fired wide.

The Germans counter-attacked immediately, with Terry inexplicably allowing the ball to run and run towards the hesitant Carson, allowing Helmes to score his first international goal.

Agbonlahor drilled his shot into the side netting via the fingertips of Wiese after a fine pass by midfielder Michael Carrick, then the keeper did well to block a dipping free-kick by left-winger Downing.

Teenage substitute Marko Marin tested Carson from long range in the 75th minute, then Wiese tipped Wright-Phillips' fierce effort onto the outside of his left-hand post four minutes later.

England were not to be denied, however, as Terry headed the winner from yet another Downing set-piece to leave the traveling England fans in raptures.

Supporters from both teams had clashed before the match, with police struggling to keep them apart as bottles were thrown.

Five England fans were reportedly arrested earlier in the day for breach of the peace and actual bodily harm. Seventeen German fans, who are known hooligans, were also detained by police.

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