News (engl.)

The Germany men’s national team has named two newcomers and six returnees in the first squad of this World Cup year, with two friendly matches scheduled for this March international break. Speaking today at the DFB Campus in Frankfurt, head coach Julian Nagelsmann revealed his 26-man squad for the pair of fixtures, with maiden call-ups for Lennart Karl and Jonas Urbig (both FC Bayern München) announced. Six players with previous national team experience have also been included in the roster, with three Premier League stars in Pascal Groß (Brighton & Hove Albion), Kai Havertz (Arsenal) and Anton Stach (Leeds United) returning to the Germany fold, as do Antonio Rüdiger (Real Madrid), Deniz Undav and Josha Vagnoman (both VfB Stuttgart).

Julian Nagelsmann said: “With this squad for the March international friendlies, it was important to us that we kept the core of the side very much intact in order to develop in the way we want. We’re also aiming to offer players who we’ve seen less of in this kind of setup the chance to prove what they’re capable of. It’s also worth saying that this selection gives those players who haven’t been called up the chance to keep working to make it into our final World Cup squad – the squad for the final competition will resemble something like this list, but these are not our final World Cup nominations.”

The German national team will start assembling from Monday onwards in Herzogenaurach, together with DFB partner adidas. Germany will first be put to the test this month when they travel to Basel on 27th March for a 20:45 CET kick-off against fellow World Cup participants Switzerland. Nagelsmann’s side will then be back on home soil the following week, with another qualified team in Ghana preparing to take on their hosts on 30th March. Kick-off in Stuttgart is scheduled for 20:45 CEST.

Unbeaten against Ghana

Germany have faced off with Switzerland on a total of 54 occasions, winning 36 of the affairs and falling to their neighbours nine times. The remaining nine matches have seen the sides both held to a draw, most recently in their final group stage game of UEFA EURO 2024, which finished 1-1 in Frankfurt am Main.

Four-time Africa Cup of Nations champions Ghana have played three games against Germany up to this point. The first meeting between the sides came in a friendly match in Bochum in 1993, with the hosts running out 6-1 winners. The other two encounters have both come in the group stages of the World Cup, with Germany defeating their upcoming opponents 1-0 in South Africa in 2010 and drawing to them 2-2 in 2014 on the way to winning the tournament in Brazil.