Germany v England – World Cup match preview.
Posted on June 26th, 2010 | 321 Comments |
These are the knock-out stages of the World Cup, and in every game from now on the aim is to win. England’s inability to top their group has forced the match between themselves and Germany, and arguably created a more difficult path for progression through the tournament, but the fact remain the same – England must win!
Germany made a flying start to the World Cup and looked by far the most impressive of the so called “big” teams, although admittedly it was only against a disappointing 10-man Australia that they swept aside 4-0. Since that win the Germans have looked a bit shaky as their young side limped into the last sixteen rather than at the canter it first looked like they would do. In contrast, England started off poor against the USA and got worse against Algeria. That led to a barrage of criticism from the press before they finally managed to put in a performance in the last group game against Slovenia, although many England fans will have wanted a greater winning margin than the 1-0 scoreline that game ended up being.
Moving on to team news…
Germany coach Joachim Low expects Bastian Schweinsteiger, Jerome Boateng and Mesut Ozil to be fit after picking up knocks in their last match against Ghana. Cacau, who played up front in that game, will miss out after pulling a stomach muscle in training, but with Miroslav Klose returning from suspension there should be no real problem in Germany naming their strongest possible starting line-up, which should be:
Germany (4-2-3-1): Neuer, Lahm, Friedrich, Mertesacker, Boateng, Khedira, Schweinsteiger; Muller, Podolski, Ozil, Klose.
For England, Fabio Capello will be boosted by the fact that all of his 23-man squad were able to take part in training today, especially as there are some concerns regarding the ankle of Wayne Rooney. Those concerns thankfully appear to be unfounded.
There isn’t much expected in the way of changes to the starting line-up although the return to fitness of Ledley King and return from suspension of Jamie Carragher will ensure that Capello does have a mild selection headache as he decides to either slot one of those two players back into the back four or whether or not to stick with Matthew Upson who performed so well against Slovenia. I would expect the England team to be:
England (4-4-2): James, Johnson, Upson, Terry, A Cole, Milner, Lampard, Barry, Gerrard, Rooney, Defoe.
Now some fun facts….
England have met Germany four times in major tournaments, and on all of those occasions the game has needed extra-time at least for it to be settled. Historically, it is England who hold the upper hand between the two teams, with England winning 15 encounters compared to Germany’s 10.
Miroslav Klose is edging closer to the all time World Cup goalscoring record that is currently held by Ronaldo (the fat, goofy one). Klose has 11 goals and is just four short of chubby Ronaldo’s total of 15 goals in World Cup football. In contrast, Steven Gerrard is England’s top current World Cup goalscorer with three goals.
In conclusion..
England may have the upper hand overall, but when it matters and the pressure is on it is generally the Germans who keep their head and triumph. It’s with a heavy heart I say this, but I can see England going out in Bloemfontein on Sunday afternoon.
My prediction: Germany 2-0 England.
Please England, prove me wrong!
NUFCBlog Author: toonsy
toonsy has written 643 articles on this blog.
1-1 after extra time, England 5-3 on pens. I just read it in my tea leaves..