Australia vs. Germany | Confederations Cup Preview

This year’s Confederations Cup will be the 4th for Australia. In their first participation in 1997, The Kangaroos reached the final game but lost it to Brazil 0-6. Another great achievement for Australia is the Bronze medal from 2001, when they beat Selecao 1-0! However, the Ange Postecoglou’s players deserved their place at the competition, as they won the AFC Asian Cup in 2015.

Germany won The World Cup in 2014 and qualified for the tournament. The Germans will take part in the Confederations Cup for the third time in their history. Their biggest success in the tournament dates back from 2005, when Die Mannschaft became third.

Head 2 Head

These two teams have met on 5 occasions. The Germans have won 3 of these matches (all the competitive games between the teams), while there has been a draw and a victory for Australia (in friendlies). The first ever game between the teams has been in 1974 in the group stage of the World Cup. In fact, both West and East Germany played in that group and both the teams have beaten the Kangaroos.

To continue with, Germany played Australia in the group stage of The Confederations Cup in 2005. The Germans were the hosts and eventually managed to take the three points after a tough 4-3 victory. Kevin Kuranyi opened the score in the 17th minute, but just 4 minutes later Skoko equalized from a free-kick. Mertesacker, Ballack and Podolski scored the other goals for Germany, while John Aloisi found the net twice for Australia, to fix the final score 4-3 in Germany’s favour.

The Form

Germany are undefeated in their last 10 matches. The last time they lost was in the semi-finals of The Euro 2016. However, the squad has changed a lot since that defeat.

Australia only lost to Brazil (0-4) in their last 9 matches. However, the opponents of The Kangaroos haven’t been that serious, so these stats aren’t indicative.

Key Players

The evergreen Tim Cahill is again in Australia squad. The forward is the best scorer for his nation – 48 goals in 97 appearances. He is the living legend of his national football team. Cahill made his debut in a friendly match against South Africa in 2004. Cahill has scored 5 goals at 3 World Cups! Even at his age of 37, he is still the most precious player in Ange Postecoglou’s squad.

The most experienced player in Germany’s squad for the competition is Julian Draxler, who is named for the captain of the team. The 23-year-old PSG midfielder has won 30 caps for Die Mannschaft. Draxler was a part of the team, which won the World Cup in 2014. Then, he also played in the European Championship in 2016. The other key figures in the squad are: Jonas Hector, Shkodran Mustafi and Joshua Kimmich. Timo Werner and Sandro Wagner are expected to lead the attack of the team. However, both have recorded 2 and respectively 3 appearances for the national team. Wagner has already found the net on 3 occasions (a hat-trick against San Marino)!

The Prediction: Australia 1-2 Germany (correct score)