Spain and Germany meet in perhaps the most highly-anticipated group-stage game of the 2022 World Cup.
Their Group E match on Sunday, November 27 will be played at Al-Bayt Stadium in Al-Khor. The match kicks off at 22:00 local time which means it will start at 19:00 in the UK and the coverage will be shown on the BBC.
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In the US, FS1 and Telemundo will be showing the match and kick off is at 14:00 EST and 11:00 PT.
Spain and Germany both work on Central European Standard Time (CET) which means the game will kick off at 20:00 in both of those countries.
Team news
Heading into their 7-0 win against Costa Rica, there were fitness worries for a few of the Spain players who had reportedly been suffering with illness. Dani Carvajal and Alvaro Morata were among those players but they were both fit enough for the bench with the latter coming on to score.
Luis Enrique was able to give a handful of his best players a breather in the second half as Pedri, Ferran Torres, Jordi Alba, Sergio Busquets and Marco Asensio all got more than 20 minutes of rest.
While their result wasn’t nearly as positive, Germany also came through their defeat to Japan unscathed. Hansi Flick is hopeful of Leroy Sane being available for selection against Spain. If he is passed fit, he seems likely to replace Thomas Muller who came into the tournament as an injury doubt.
Squad guides
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Predicted line-ups
Spain (4-3-3): Simon, Azpilicueta, Garcia, Laporte, Alba; Rodri, Pedri, Gavi; Asensio, Torres, Olmo.
Germany (4-2-3-1): Neuer, Kehrer, Rudiger, Schlotterbeck, Raum; Kimmich, Gundogan; Gnabry, Musiala, Sane; Havertz.
Last time out
Spain couldn’t have got off to a much stronger start to the World Cup as they demolished Costa Rica, scoring seven goals. 18-year-old Gavi stole the show with a brilliant volley and the player of the match award while there were goals for Dani Olmo, Marco Asensio, Ferran Torres (2), Carlos Soler and Alvaro Morata.
Germany’s start to the tournament was the complete opposite as they were stunned by Japan. Ilkay Gundogan opened the scoring in that game to make it 1-0 before goals from Ritsu Doan and Takuma Asano flipped the game on its head.
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Germany vs Japan result: Asano scores brilliant winner
Players carrying yellow cards
Spain: None.
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Germany: None.
What’s at stake?
This game was always going to be a big one when the World Cup draw was made although, fans would have thought that the result would determine who would finish top of the group and who would finish runners-up.
Instead, Germany will be knocked out if they lose and Japan pick up at least a point against Costa Rica. In that instance, Spain would also confirm their safe passage to the last 16.
A point would keep Hansi Flick’s side in the tournament, especially as they face Costa Rica in their final group game but a victory is the only outcome that would properly kickstart their World Cup.
Victory for the four-time winners would give them a great chance of beating Spain to top spot in Group E but the goal difference La Roja established against Costa Rica will make them tough to beat.
Prediction
Spain to beat Germany.
Spain to win: 43%. Germany to win: 29%. Draw: 28%.
All of our predictions for the 2022 World Cup are powered by Nielsen’s Gracenote, who have used a proprietary football ranking system to estimate the chances of different results for every possible match through extensive simulations, to assess the chances for each team to reach different stages of the tournament.
Wider reading
There has been plenty of coverage across The Athletic of Spain and Germany because of how ridiculous both of their opening scorelines were. Here are some of the best pieces.
(Top photo: Getty Images)
