News (engl.)

As part of their preparation for next summer’s FIFA World Cup in USA, Canada and Mexico, the Germany national side will play a friendly against Switzerland, before a second game against an as yet undetermined opponent. The first game is scheduled for Friday, 27th March 2026 at the St. Jakob Park in Basel – the largest stadium in Switzerland. The Germany side will then return home to face off with a new opponent in Stuttgart. The original plan was to play Ivory Coast, however Friday’s World Cup group stage draw placed them in the same group as Germany, meaning a new opponent will need to be found.

Germany head coach Julian Nagelsmann said: “The group stage draw has made it all seem very real and everyone is full of anticipation ahead of such a top-class tournament. Every training session and every game we play from now until the group stage is twice as valuable. Switzerland are a formidable opponent less than three months before the tournament begins and they will demand everything of us. Matches against Switzerland have always been special and this time will be no different.”

Games against Finland and USA to come

Two more preparation games have been scheduled, the first of which is set to take place in Mainz on 31st May 2026 against Finland (20:45 CEST). Nagelsmann’s side will then fly to Chicago ahead of their meeting with hosts USA on 6th June (20:30 CEST) at the Soldier Field. The day after the game, the players and coaching staff will move into their base camp, where they will stay for the duration of the tournament.

The 2026 World Cup kicks off on 11th June (from 21:00 CEST), with the first game seeing Mexico take on South Africa in Mexico City. USA and Canada will play their first games the day after. Germany play their first game on 14th June (19:00 CEST) in Houston against Curacao. They go again six days later against Ivory Coast (22:00 CEST) in Toronto, before playing the final group stage game on 25the June in East Rutherford against Ecuador (22:00 CEST). This was the result of the group stage draw made in Washington D.C last Friday.

The Switzerland national side came through qualifying unbeaten, dropping just four points across their six games against Kosovo, Slovenia and Sweden. Murat Yakin’s side were drawn into Group B and will play Canada, Qatar and the winner of one of the European playoffs. Switzerland, who are currently 17th in the FIFA world ranking, and Germany have met 54 times previously. History favours Nagelsmann’s side, as they’ve won 36 of those games. Switzerland have come out on top on nine occasions, while the remaining nine have been draws. The most recent clash between the two sides came in the final group-stage game of the 2024 EUROs and finished as a 1-1 draw.