Following Germany’s 2-0 victory over Luxembourg and Slovakia’s win at home to Northern Ireland on Friday night, both sides are a win away from automatic qualification for next summer’s World Cup when they face off at the Red Bull Arena in Leipzig.
Despite currently sitting top of the group, Julian Nagelsmann’s side are far from comfortable as they are only above Slovakia on goal difference and will need a result against them in order to avoid an uncomfortable play-off route. The four-time World champions have failed to really impress during qualifying, sneaking past Northern Ireland and Luxembourg all while falling to defeat against Slovakia the last time the two sides met.
Having won the competition on four occasions, Die Mannschaft have seceded in the group stages in each of the last two iterations of the tournament. Their disappointing recent history on the international stage will be compounded if they fail to automatically qualify for next summer’s tournament.
Slovakia, having already beaten the Germans 2-0 in qualifying, will be confirmed group winners should they repeat the same feat again. Francesco Calzona’s side will enter the match off the back of a 1-0 victory over Northern Ireland who have already secured their play-off route via the Nations League.
They were last present at the World Cup in 2010 where they reached the round of 16 so there will be plenty of hope for the small nation that they can once again punch above their weight as they have been doing with vigour during qualifying. Calzona’s side started qualifying well after beating Germany and Luxembourg before their form tailed off though, sat level on points with Germany, they’re still in with a huge chance of upsetting the odds.
Slovakia have won four of their previous 12 against Germany including two in their last three against the DFB which will give the underdogs a boost of confidence.
Germany are without numerous key players including Jamal Musiala, Kai Havertz, Marc-André ter Stegen and Antonio Rüdiger. Nagelsmann has reported no new injury concerns following the side’s 2-0 win last week therefore it would not be a surprise to see an unchanged starting XI for this grudge match.
Starting striker Nick Woltemade has netted three times in seven games for his country meanwhile there will be another start for Liverpool’s Florian Wirtz who has been the metronome of the sides during these games.
As for Slovakia, Martin Dúbravka and Milan Skriniar will start again having been crucial to the side’s success of late. Calzona will not change his lineup too much in order to keep continuity. Dávid Ďuriš is in line to start again whilst Thomas Rigo may feature once more off the bench.
Confirmed line-ups
GER: Baumann; Kimmich, Tah, Schlotterbeck, Raum; Pavlović, Goretzka; Sané, Gnabry, Wirtz; Woltemade
SLO: Dúbravka; Gyomber, Skriniar, Obert; Bero, Lobotka, Duda, Hancko; Ďuriš, Strelec, Sauer