Germany Team Preview – Overview
World champions Germany head to France looking to emulate both France and Spain from the last 20 years as sides who have won the World Cup and then followed it up by winning this tournament two years later. France did the double in 1998 and 2000 with Spain completing the feat in 2010 and 2012.
This will be Germany’s 12th appearance in the tournament and having won it three times they know how to get the job done. They haven’t had their hands on the trophy since 1996 though so they might think they are due but on paper at least this doesn’t look as strong a squad as the one which cleaned up in Brazil however you can never write the Germans off when it comes to tournament play.
Statistics
Best Performance – Winners (1972, 1980 & 1996)
Previous Appearances – 11 (1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008 & 2012)
Qualified – Group D Winner
Qualifying Record
P-10 W-7 D-1 L-2 GF-24 GA-9 PTS-22
Fixtures
Germany vs Ukraine – Sunday 12th June, kickoff 20:00 at Stade Pierre-Mauroy, Lille
Germany vs Poland – Thursday 16th June, kickoff 20:00 at Stade de France, Paris
Northern Ireland vs Germany – Tuesday 21st June, kickoff 17:00 at Parc des Princes, Paris
Squad
Manager: Joachim Low
Goalkeepers: Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich), Bernd Leno (Bayer Leverkusen), Marc-Andre ter Stegen (Barcelona)
Defenders: Jerome Boateng (Bayern Munich), Emre Can (Liverpool), Jonas Hector (Cologne), Benedikt Hoewedes (Schalke 04), Mats Hummels (Borussia Dortmund), Shkodran Mustafi (Valencia), Antonio Ruediger (Roma)
Midfielders: Julian Draxler (VfL Wolfsburg), Sami Khedira (Juventus), Joshua Kimmich (Bayern Munich), Toni Kroos (Real Madrid), Thomas Mueller (Bayern Munich), Mesut Ozil (Arsenal), Lukas Podolski (Galatasaray), Andre Schuerrle (VfL Wolfsburg), Bastian Schweinsteiger (Manchester United), Julian Weigl (Borussia Dortmund)
Forwards: Mario Gomez (Besiktas), Mario Goetze (Bayern Munich), Leroy Sane (Schalke 04)
Betting
All along I’ve had this nagging feeling that Germany aren’t certain to top this group. They probably didn’t want a local derby against Poland to cloud things and Ukraine and Northern Ireland are quite capable of keeping things tight if they have good days so I’m more interested in how Germany will do in the group than rushing in to bet on them doing anything.
I would expect Thomas Muller to lead the German scoring but he’s no price for a 3-4 week punt. If there was a chance of Germany going out early I might have chanced someone at a big price like Ozil or Kroos but realistically I think 3 goals will be needed to win this at least and that is probably beyond them. No bet for me.
Tips
No Bet
