Germany have lost their 100% start to the World Cup qualifying stage courtesy of a magnificent four-goal comeback by Sweden.

The hosts took the lead after just seven minutes when Marco Reus got on the end of Philipp Lahm's ball before cutting it back to Miroslav Klose, who slammed his shot past the Swedish keeper.

This lead was doubled less than 10 minutes later when Reus linked with teammates well before squaring to Klose, who again made no mistake to net his 67th international goal, a tally that puts him one behind the legendary Gerd Muller as Germany's top scorer.

Mesut Ozil and Reus both squandered good chances in the space of a minute, but just seconds later the home side were three up. The ball was swung into the Sweden box, allowing Thomas Muller to nod it down to Per Mertesacker, who fired past Andreas Isaksson.

Germany extended their lead even further 10 minutes into the second half when Muller once again provided an assist, this time for Ozil who fired the ball across Isaksson and into the corner.

The fourth goal seemed to galvanise Sweden, however, and they restored a measure of hope with two goals in quick succession. First, Zlatan Ibrahimovic nodded home to make it 4-1 before Mikael Lustig squeezed his shot past Manuel Neuer.

Sweden pulled another goal back with 15 minutes left when Alexander Kacaniklic squared the ball to Johan Elmander, who fired his side to within one goal of their hosts.

Tobias Sana squandered a gilt-edged chance five minutes from time to punish Neuer for a mistake, but the miraculous comeback was finally completed in the 92nd minute through Rasmus Elm's strike.

Written by
Barney Corkhill