Berlin  - Captain John Terry helped gift Germany a goal and then scored the winner as England continued their run of fine form with a 2-1 victory in Berlin Wednesday.

The Chelsea defender headed an 84th-minute winner for Fabio Capello's depleted side to save his embarrassment after a terrible mix-up with keeper Scott Carson had handed Germany an equalizer.

Defender Matthew Upson had given England a deserved opener in the 24th minute but a combined schoolboy error by Terry and Carson, playing the second half for David James, had allowed a lacklustre home side to level in the 63rd.

Carson, playing for the first time since a blunder against Croatia a year ago contributed to England's failure to qualify for Euro 2008, was hesitant in coming out to clear a harmless ball.

Terry also waited instead of taking charge and second-half substitute Patrick Helmes nipped the ball through Carson's legs to score.

It threatened to ruin a confident and competent display by an unfamiliar England side against a German team who were were outplayed for most of this friendly international in front of a capacity 74,244 crowd in the Olympic Stadium.

But Terry made amends by outleaping defender Heiko Westermann to head powerfully home from a Stewart Downing free-kick six minutes from time.

Capello said he was pleased with the performance, which has come after a perfect four-game winning start to the World Cup qualifying campaign, but the victory by a virtual reserve side sent "no message" to his absent first-choice players.

"I said right from the start the players had to recover their confidence and I think the players understand that. You can see that in the game and in training," he said.

"The result is important but the performance is very very good because we played here in Berlin against Germany, a good team," Capello continued.

"We played very well, had a lot of chances to score goals and I liked the attitude of the team. We played with confidence, which is very very important, and with personality."

Upson, filling in for Rio Ferdinand, was a dominant presence in the centre of defence and his first-half goal set England on their way.

Shaun Wright-Phillips, Stewart Downing, Michael Carrick and Gabriel Agonblahor all played well, and Capello said they had done themselves a lot of good in his future plans.

"They (the absent players) will all be very happy because we won here," he said, adding that he had confidence in his team.

"We had the opportunity to know better some players who have not played many games for me. Now, after the game, I know better a lot of players," he said.

"I don't like to speak about one player, always I speak about the team, but all the players played well. It's very important the spirit we play every game."

Germany coach Joachim Loew said: "England were the better side throughout the game. We had a really bad day today.

"In the second half we made some inroads into the game but on the whole you can say we deserved to lose."

Midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger said: "England played tactically well and we simply weren't good enough."

Capello made seven changes to the team which started England's last match against Belarus, with only goalkeeper James, defenders Wayne Bridge and Upson and midfielder Gareth Barry retaining their places.

Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Wayne Rooney, Wes Brown, Rio Ferdinand, Chelsea teammates Ashley and Joe Cole as well as Emile Heskey and Theo Walcott were all sidelined with injuries.

Rather than complain Capello welcomed the opportunity of seeing whether younger players who had performed well in the Premier League had the confidence to thrive at international level.

From the start England looked bright, with Aston Villa forward Gabriel Agbonlahor doing well on his debut, Stewart Downing active on the left and Shaun Wright-Phillips busy and dangerous.

Hoffenheim defender Marvin Compper looked unhappy on his first cap on the left of defence for Germany who struggled to find any sort of fluid movement without absent captain Michael Ballack and the overlooked Torsten Frings.

Schalke's Jermaine Jones and Simon Rolfes in the centre of midfield were often second best in an area of the park patrolled simply and effectively by Michael Carrick and Barry.

England's opener came as little surprise, with Upson bundling the ball over the line after goalkeeper Rene Adler, under pressure from Jermain Defoe, failed to deal with a corner from Downing.

The Leverkusen goalkeeper complained he had been unfairly hindered but Swiss referee Massimo Busacca would have none of it.

The first half ended with jeers from home fans in the Olympic Stadium, and Loew reacted by replacing Miroslav Klose with Helmes and Marko Marin for Jones, while Lukas Podolski came on for the ineffective Mario Gomez up front in the 57th minute.

Tim Wiese was a second half replacement for Adler in goal to earn his first cap, while Capello also rang the changes at half-time, bringing on Tottenham's Darren Bent for Defoe and Carson for James.

Bent had the chance of the match in the 63rd minute when he rounded Wiese but could not keep his footing and screwed the ball wide of an empty goal.

That moment was hardly digested when Terry and Carson contrived to allow Germany back in the game.

Capello refused to lay any blame on the players, saying the ball had held up in the wind and neither Carson nor Terry took charge. "It was a case of 'I should, you should'," he said.

However, Terry held his hands up and said he must shoulder the blame.

"Obviously I should have cleared it," Terry said. "It's not Scotty's fault, I should have cleared it. But I was delighted to get on the scoresheet and win the game."

The goal gave Germany fresh confidence and the home side enjoyed a brief spell of ascendency, with Marin testing Carson with a long-range effort which the West Bromwich Albion keeper could only parry away.

But England were soon back on the front foot and the lively Wright-Phillips struck the post before Terry then deservedly settled the match for the visitors, leaving Germany stuck with a record of never having beaten England at Berlin in eight encounters. (dpa)