Germany vs Northern Ireland: Lineups, team news, and more!

The good news for Germany is that they are already through: the Nationalmannschaft secured qualification by defeating Belarus on Saturday while the Netherlands held Northern Ireland to a 0-0 draw. The bad news, of course, is that Germany is still plagued by multiple injuries to key players. The team has gained very little consistency during this Euro 2020 qualifying campaign. Löw will have to balance the need to give his players some familiarity with one another on the pitch, before they part ways again until March, against the need to give a handful of newcomers a chance.

Another, less significant problem that might be on his mind is the poor attendance that has followed Germany (rightly, it must be said) since their horrific 2018 World Cup campaign

Team News

The state of the squad is the same as before, but worse: Luca Waldschmidt is still in the hospital after undergoing surgery to repair a facial fracture. He is awaiting an examination for a knee and ankle injury, as well. Emre Can will be back, having served his red-card suspension, but Marco Reus, Kai Havertz, Niklas Süle, Marcel Halstenberg Leroy Sané, Jimmy Hoffa, Julian Draxler, Antonio Rüdiger, Elvis, Thilo Kehrer, and Kevin Trapp are also still out with a variety of injuries.

Perhaps Niklas Stark will finally get a start! He looks like he has gone ten rounds with Apollo Creed, having suffered a broken nose just before the break, but he might at last make his DFB debut (wearing a mask).

Löw announced well in advance that Marc-André ter Stegen would start against Northern Ireland. In defense, Löw could start Stark alongside Mattias Ginter, or he might give Jonathan Tah another chance. (Do we need another?) Robin Koch might sit, since his most notable action was conceding a penalty on a silly foul. Please no Emre Can as a central defender...

Lukas Klostermann will probably play out right as right-back qua right wing, and Nico Schulz might sit to let Jonas Hector back into the lineup.

Germany will probably field a kind of 4-3-3 like last time, but depending on how much Northern Ireland let the Germans pin them in their half, it’ll look like a 2-3-5 most of the time. At least Löw’s midfield of Joshua Kimmich, Toni Kroos, and Ilkay Gündogan seems set.

Some combination of Serge Gnabry, Julian Brandt, and Timo Werner should play up front, unless we get Leon Goretzka as pseudo-winger again with Klosterman doing the actual winging.

Here’s my guess as to how Germany will line up: