Germany hoping Hummels could face Ukraine

Antonio Rudiger would have been the ideal replacement at centre half, although he tore his cruciate ligaments in training last week and will miss the entire tournament. The sides played out an entertaining 3-3 draw in Kyiv. HIs shot was somehow scuffed towards goal by Boateng before the defender made a goal-line clearance.

“Nelly just predicted that Germany will win against Ukraine”.

Germany’s assistant coach Thomas Schneider insisted that the Manchester United midfielder is fit and highlighted the importance of his leadership. “We’ll have to raise ourselves in the tournament and hopefully already against Poland”, said Neuer, referring to the team’s next game at Stade de France on Thursday.

But they booked their berth by beating the Dutch 3-2, winning 2-0 away to the Czech Republic, then edging Iceland courtesy of a 89th-minute Selcuk Inan free-kick to qualify as the best third-place team.

Ukraine could expose Germany’s inexperience at the back via their talented wingers Yevhen Konoplyanka and Andriy Yarmolenko. It will be up to Loew’s full backs to neutralize that threat but it must also break down a steely Ukraine defense. Germany then lost to Ireland in the return game in Dublin.

“It was important for us to start with a win”, Mustafi said.

Ukraine is looking to make a stand after hosting the Euro four years ago. “They are very, very risky on the counter”.

Die Mannschaft also suffered stunning clean-sheet losses to Poland and Ireland during the qualifying and finished just one point ahead of Poland, who tallied one fewer loss and outscored Germany by nine goals during the qualification tournament.

Mustafi nearly gifted Ukraine an equalizer late on when he headed the ball back without realizing that Neuer was out of his goal.

Every process is ongoing and every team is developing.

Bayern man looked far from inspired during the domestic run-in and has not scored in a European Championship match, yet the highly talented young attacker has been tipped to become one of the big stars of Euro 2016. Their victory in Brazil is history. Artem Fedetskiy managed to beat Jonas Hector on the right flank and put in a cross near the edge of the box which Konoplyanka side-footed first time goalward. The game starts at 1600 GMT. We’re 90% sorted but we still have some time.

There’s a chance that Ukraine will go back into their defensive shell when the first whistle goes, but recent displays have given me the feeling that they’ll be a bit more attacking than they were in qualifying, especially if they think they can get at a weakened Germany defence. Everybody in our camp understands what a hard game this will be.