KIMETZ THE BARBARIAN

Winger Piotr Trochowski unleashed a superb second-half strike to seal a 1-0 win over Wales on Wednesday and put Germany four points clear in their World Cup qualifying group.

Joachim Loew's side took a sizeable step towards claiming the single guaranteed place at South Africa 2010 from Group Four with three more points against a spirited Welsh side in their final qualifier of the year.

"We are really pleased to have finished the year with six points from the win over Russia (last Saturday) and Wales, it puts us in a good position for next year," said Loew. Their third win from four qualifying games means Germany are now on ten points with Russia - who beat Finland 3-0 in Moscow on Wednesday - and plucky Wales lagging behind on six each, but Germany wasted a string of chances.

"We failed to score an early goal and made life a bit hard for ourselves," said captain Michael Ballack after the win over Wales."In the first-half, we lacked the concentration and a bit of finishing, but things were better in the second-half."

The result was a bitter pillow to swallow for John Toshack's team who defended passionately, but the Germany attack finally unpicked the lock on the Welsh goal when Trochowski rifled his shot home on 72 minutes.