Euro 2024 hosts Germany continue their preparations for next year's continental tournament when they welcome Ukraine to Werder Bremen's Weserstadion for a friendly battle on Monday.
While the pressure is off Die Mannschaft as they wait to learn who will pay a visit to their homeland next year, Ukraine are gearing up for a pair of qualifiers against North Macedonia and Malta later this month.
Match preview
© Reuters
In the wake of another bitterly disappointing group-stage exit at the World Cup, rumours naturally began to swirl surrounding the future of Germany head coach Hansi Flick, who has opted to remain in his post as he seeks to right the wrongs of their Qatar misfortunes.
Given their status as Euro 2024 hosts, Die Mannschaft have escaped the long and often arduous qualifying process and will instead compete in a series of exhibition matches to warm up for the upcoming continental championships.
Germany's preparations began in ideal fashion with a 2-0 triumph over Peru on March 25, as Niclas Fullkrug netted twice in the first half, and the Werder Bremen striker - who will be stepping out onto his own turf next week - was also on target when Belgium made the trek to Cologne three days later.
However, the Red Devils had already stormed into a 2-0 lead within the first 10 minutes thanks to Romelu Lukaku and Yannick Carrasco's efforts, and further strikes from Kevin De Bruyne and Serge Gnabry closed out a pulsating 3-2 win for Domenico Tedesco's Belgium.
That beating marked a first friendly defeat in 13 matches for Germany, whose most recent reverse before that was a 2-1 loss at the hands of Austria in 2018, but they have netted in each of their last 15 exhibition matches and will also look to assert their dominance in imminent friendlies with Poland and Colombia on June 16 and 20 respectively.
© Reuters
In contrast, Ukraine will have to do it the hard way to book their tickets to Euro 2024, and their bid to qualify for their fourth consecutive continental championships began in underwhelming fashion three months ago.
A showdown with Euro 2020 finalists England at Wembley was not expected to yield success for the Blue and Yellow, who fell victim to a Bukayo Saka masterclass, as the Arsenal man set up Harry Kane before adding a second with a peach of a strike in a straightforward 2-0 win for the Three Lions.
Already playing catch-up in Euro 2024 qualifying Group C - which also features reigning champions Italy - as they sit fourth in the rankings, Ukraine ought to put some points on the board in their upcoming battles with North Macedonia and Malta under the tutelage of Sergiy Rebrov, who replaced interim boss Ruslan Rotan earlier this month.
A two-time Ukrainian champion with Dynamo Kiev and three-time Hungarian title-holder with Ferencvaros, Rebrov - who donned the colours of Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United during his playing days - faces a true baptism of fire at Weserstadion, as Ukraine seek to avoid another scoreless outing for the fourth time in five matches.
The Blue and Yellow board the plane to Bremen unbeaten in their last five friendly affairs, but they have unsurprisingly failed to win any of their previous eight contests with Germany, most recently suffering a pair of 2-1 and 3-1 defeats during the 2020-21 Nations League.
- W
- W
- D
- W
- W
- L
- L
- D
- W
- W
- D
- D
Team News
© Reuters
Several notable names will not be present in Germany colours for the visit of Ukraine, as Manchester City's Ilkay Gundogan and Inter Milan's Robin Gosens will vie for Champions League stardom on Saturday night and will link up with their national team at a later date this month.
Bayern Munich's Gnabry is also unavailable due to an ankle concern, while Thomas Muller, Mario Gotze, Niklas Sule, Karim Adeyemi and Marco Reus are all absent for one reason or another.
Flick has confirmed that Germany will move forward with a three-man backline for future matches, meaning that Antonio Rudiger, Nico Schlotterbeck and Matthias Ginter could protect Marc-Andre ter Stegen here.
As for Ukraine, Arsenal left-back Oleksandr Zinchenko - who occupies a midfield role for his country - will sit out June's fixtures with the calf problem that prematurely ended his 2022-23 season, while Club Brugge striker Roman Yaremchuk has also pulled out of the squad with a physical complaint.
However, Zinchenko's fellow Premier League full-back Vitaliy Mykolenko is in the squad - despite missing Everton's final three games with muscular fatigue - while two uncapped players also feature in the shape of Zorya Luhansk's Nazariy Rusyn and Dynamo Kiev's Vladyslav Vanat.
Both strikers should accept a spot on the bench as Artem Dovbyk leads the charge, while Chelsea's Mykhaylo Mudryk is poised to win his 10th senior cap on the back of his difficult introduction to the Premier League.
Germany possible starting lineup:
Ter Stegen; Ginter, Rudiger, Schlotterbeck; Henrichs, Kimmich, Goretzka, Raum; Sane, Musiala; Fullkrug
Ukraine possible starting lineup:
Trubin; Konoplya, Svatok, Matvienko, Sobol; Sydorchuk, Stepanenko; Tsygankov, Malinovskyi, Mudryk; Dovbyk
We say: Germany 2-0 Ukraine
Despite the calibre of opposition awaiting them, Ukraine have bigger fish to fry this month, and the absence of influential captain Zinchenko will no doubt be felt on the Weserstadion turf.
Germany fans had been hoping to see a more challenging friendly programme in the build-up to Euro 2024, but the Mannschaft faithful should be celebrating a straightforward win at full time on Monday.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Top tip
Ben Knapton
