Date- 4 July 2014
Time- 9:30 PM
Venue- Estadio Jornalista Mário Filho (Maracanã), Rio de Janeiro
It is a fixture that immediately recalls memories of the famous World Cup semi-final clash between the sides in 1982, when Germany won on penalties following a 3-3 draw. These teams have played each other in 25 occasions and France lead the head to head tally with 11 wins against Germany’s 8 victories. 6 matches between the sides have ended in a draw. However, Germany leads in goals department with 42 goals which is one more than France’s 41.
- Antoine Griezmann may start against Germany having impressed from the bench against Nigeria.
- That will see Olivier Giroud drop out of the team and Karim Benzema spearhead the attack.
- Mamadou Sakho should recover from injury in time to start in place of Laurent Koscielny in what should be Didier Deschamps' only other change.
- Shkodran Mustafi is likely to miss out after pulling up in the 2-1 win over Algeria the past week.
- Philipp Lahm may be moved back to right-back to give balance to the Germany defence, with Mats Hummels returning to centre-back alongside Per Mertesacker.
- Sami Khedira may also come into the starting XI at the expense of Jerome Boateng, while Andre Schürrle could feature from the bench despite scoring on Monday.
- There have been 17 goals scored in the three previous World Cup meetings between France and Germany, an average 5.7 goals per game.
- Germany have scored two or more goals in each of those World Cup matches and are unbeaten since their first World Cup clash with France in 1958 (3-6 defeat), winning in the 1982 clash on penalties (3-3) and winning in 1986 (2-0).
- The two sides last met in a friendly in February 2013. France took the lead through a Mathieu Valbuena strike in the first half, before second half goals from Thomas Müller and Sami Khedira secured the victory for Germany.
- Germany have reached the semi-finals of the last three World Cups. No nation has ever made the last four in four successive tournaments.
- Germany are unbeaten in 15 internationals (W10 D5), longer than any other side still involved at the World Cup.
- On the last five occasions that France have progressed past round 1 in the World Cup, they have reached the semi-final stage (1958, 1982, 1986, 1998 and 2006).
- All of France’s goals during this World Cup have come from inside the box (10).
- France have lost only one of their 10 games played on Brazilian soil (W6 D3).
- France are the first team to benefit from two own goals in the same World Cup.
- Les Bleus have hit the woodwork more often than any other team at this World Cup (6), which is the highest tally for a team since Poland and Argentina in 1982 (both 6).
- Thomas Müller (four goals, two assists) has been directly involved in six of Germany’s nine goals (66.7%) at this this World Cup.
- Karim Benzema (19) has fired in 12 more shots than any other French player during this tournament.
- André Schürrle has scored five goals in his last five competitive matches for Germany.
- Miroslav Klose needs one more goal to be the World Cup’s highest scorer. He is currently joint-top with Ronaldo (15 goals).
