On Monday, two-time winners Germany Women will face Morocco Women in the Women's World Cup 2023 at the Melbourne Rectangular Stadium.

While Germany have never missed a World Cup finals, their opponents are preparing to make their tournament debut.

Match preview

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After finishing as runners-up at last year's European Championships, Germany are hoping to go one better in the World Cup.

Since being crowned world champions in 2003 and 2007, they have been quarter-finalists on two occasions and reached the semi-finals once.

Competing in a group that contains Morocco, Colombia and South Korea, Germany will be hoping to continue their 100% record of reaching the World Cup knockout rounds.

Although they will be favourites to win the group, Martina Voss-Tecklenburg's side have experienced a mixed run of form in the build-up to the tournament, winning two, drawing one and losing three of their last six games.

Having won seven and drawn one of their eight World Cup openers (W7, D1), Germany will be confident of picking up a positive result on Monday.

While Germany are seasoned veterans on the world stage, Morocco are looking forward to making their first appearance after securing qualification via their impressive performance at the 2022 Africa Cup of Nations.

Knowing the a semi-final berth would secure qualification, the Lionesses of Atlas breezed through the group stage to set up a last-eight meeting with Botswana.

Goals from Sanaa Mssoudy and Yasmin Mrabet guided Morocco to a 2-1 victory, which sealed their place at the World Cup and helped them progress to the semi-finals, where they managed to beat Nigeria in a penalty shootout.

Despite coming up short in the 2-1 defeat to South Africa in the Africa Cup of Nations final, Morocco would have still been proud of their best performance at a major tournament.

As the lowest-ranked team in their World Cup group, Morocco have their work cut out to advance to the knockout stages, especially having failed to win any of their last five matches.

Team News

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Carolin Simon has been ruled out of the tournament after she suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury in Germany's surprise pre-tournament defeat to Zambia.

With over 100 international appearances to her name, Germany captain Alex Popp will be crucial to her country's hopes of going all the way in Australia and New Zealand.

Popp is expected to lead the line against Morocco, and the Wolfsburg forward could be flanked by Svenja Huth and Klara Buhl, with Lina Magull set to operate in the number 10 role.

As for the Africa of Nations finalists, Hanane Ait El Haj is expected to feature in central defence alongside Mrabet.

Ghizlane Chebbak will get the honour of captaining her country at their first Women's World Cup, and the Morocco skipper could be joined in the middle of the park by Elodie Nakkach.

The responsibility of leading the line may fall to Tottenham Hotspur forward Rosella Ayane, who will be looking to add to the nine goals that she has scored at international level.

Germany Women possible starting lineup:
Frohms; Kleinherne, Hendrich, Hegering, Rauch; Oberdorf, Dabritz; Huth, Magull, Buhl; Popp

Morocco Women possible starting lineup:
Er-Rmichi; Redouani, Ait El Haj, Mrabet, Seghir; Ouzraoui, Chebbak, Nekkach, Tagnaout; Amani; Ayane

We say: Germany Women 3-0 Morocco Women

Germany may have suffered a surprise loss to Zambia in their final warm-up game, but they usually rise to the challenge at major tournaments, and we expect them to begin their World Cup campaign with a comfortable victory over Morocco.

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