France vs Germany Friendly Preview: Team News and Predicted Lineups

March 24, 2024

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10:02

Joshua Kimmich. Photo: Vitalii Vitleo/ Shutterstock

France host Germany on Saturday in Lyon with the hope of redeeming their 2-1 loss last September. Both sides will no doubt want to prove themselves ahead of the Euros.

Match Overview

France

France went unbeaten in the Euro 2024 qualifiers in 2023, winning seven out of eight games including a massive 14-0 win against Gibraltar in November which broke their record for their highest win ever.

In Dortmund last September, Germany ran out 2-1 winners against France thanks to goals from Thomas Müller and Leroy Sané in Rudi Völler only game as interim coach of the German national team following the sacking of Hansi Flick.

Apart from this loss, France have only lost one other game against Die Mannschaft in their last eight outings against their German counterparts, this loss coming in the quarter-finals of the infamous 2014 World Cup campaign.

France's Olivier Giroud will become the third oldest player to ever play for France should he start against Germany. The only player in recent history to be older than Giroud in playing for Les Bleus was Steve Mandanda who played in late 2022 in the 1-0 loss to Tunisia in the World Cup at the age of thirty-seven years and eight months old.

Lastly, France only lost once in 2023 (against Germany) whereas their opponents on Saturday have lost six times in 2023 including in games against Colombia, Japan, Belgium, Turkey, Austria and Poland.

Germany

Germany had a record bad year in 2023, even with Julian Nagelsmann taking over late last year from Hansi Flick. Nagelsmann has lost his last two outings as Germany coach, despite winning his first ever game as coach of Die Mannschaft against the United States in September.

Against Turkey in November, Julian Nagelsmann elected to play Kai Havertz at left-back. Despite losing, it can be argued that this decision paid off as the Arsenal player scored in the fifth minute to put Die Mannschaft one-nil up.

Ahead of the games against the Netherlands and France, Julian Nagelsmann has made an incredible amount of eleven changes to his squad called up for the games against Turkey and Austria last year: Manuel Neuer, Waldemar Anton, Robin Koch, Maximilian Mittelstädt, David Raum, Jan-Niklas Beste, Aleksandar Pavlović, Toni Kroos, Jamal Musiala, Maximilian Beier and Deniz Undav.

The reasoning behind this is due to the reasoning of selecting players based on form. VfB Stuttgart sit in third in the Bundesliga, with player like Deniz Undav and Waldemar Anton being some of the best in their positions this season. When asked about the changes in the squad, Nagelsmann said: "We said that we have to and will change things. After the bad results and the way we played, we had to change something."

Lastly, İlkay Gündoğan retained his captaincy and DFB coach Julian Nagelsmann was clear about the reasons why: "Ilkay remains captain. But Manuel's (Neuer) word will continue to have weight. This captain's topic is intended to be a contact point for his colleagues. Players should feel like they have a leader in their ranks. He’s a representative of the team."

Team News

France

Christopher Nkunku is out with a thigh injury and Antoine Griezmann is also unavailable with an ankle injury. Kingsley Coman will also miss the tie with a knee injury.

Lastly, Mike Maignan has a knee issue so will be a doubt ahead of the tie against Die Mannschaft.

Germany

Jan-Niklas Beste has had to withdraw from the Germany squad due to a groin injury. Both Manuel Neuer and Aleksandar Pavlović also have had to go back to Munich and leave the training camp due to injury.

Leroy Sané is still suspended from his red card in the 2-0 loss to Austria last November. Both Jonas Hofmann and Lukas Klostermann are also unavailable due to a hip and thigh injury respectively.