Germany starts their World Cup qualifying campaign with a trip to Norway on Sunday, as the world champions seek a positive start to the defence of their title.
Joachim Low’s side will be looking to bounce back from their 2-0 defeat against France in the Euro 2016 semi-final. Die Mannschaft recorded a 2-0 friendly win over Norway’s fellow Scandinavians on Wednesday night.
The game saw the final international appearance of Manchester United midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger, as the 32-year-old retired from national team duty.
The world champions have a strong squad, but there were a few surprising omissions from the squad in Bayern Munich defender Jerome Boateng and striker Mario Gomez, who scored twice at Euro 2016. Manchester City youngster Leroy Sane was also left out of the squad due to lack of match fitness.
Low still has a star-studded international cast of players to choose from and Norway look unlikely to cause the world champions many problems.
The Scandinavian nation have beaten Germany just once in 19 international encounters, although that win came in their last clash seven years ago.
Germany’s defeat against France was their first in normal time in eight games and Low’s side will be highly confident of starting their qualification campaign off with a victory.
Norway will be looking to enjoy a better qualification campaign, as the Scandinavian nation have not made an international tournament since qualifying for Euro 2000.
It seems unlikely that that record will improve during this qualification campaign, as Germany are red hot favourites to win the group, while Euro 2016 participants Czech Republic and Northern Ireland will be eying up the runners-up spot.