After suffering their first qualifying defeat for two years, a 2-0 defeat in Warsaw to Poland, Joachim Löw’s side have the chance to made amends tonight (20:45 CEST). They face Ireland in their third qualifier for the 2016 UEFA European Championship. Here are the facts and figures ahead of tonight’s match:
Stats I: Tonight’s match is Germany’s 896th international. Since their first match, on the 5th April 1908, they have won 520 times, drawn on 181 occasions and lost 194 matches. 914 players have appeared in the previous 895 games. Germany’s goal record is 2011 scored and 1066 conceded.
Stats II: Tonight is Joachim Löw’s 116th game as Germany Head Coach. He has won 78 of these games, with there being 20 draws and 17 defeats. Löw has used 98 players in that period, 73 of which were debutants. The most recent player to be awarded his debut by Löw was Karim Bellarabi, who played for the first time on Saturday against Poland.
Stats III: Germany face Ireland for the 19th time tonight. It is a fixture which Germany traditionally dominate, having won nine of the previous meetings and losing only five. There have been four draws. In these games Germany have scored 34 goals and only conceded 22. The last meetings between the sides came in October 2013 when Löw’s team won 3-0 in Köln in a World Cup qualifier.
Most-capped player: Germany’s most capped player is Lothar Matthäus, who played 150 times for them between 1980 and 2000. In terms of currently active players, Lukas Podolski has the highest amount with 119. After the recent retirements of Miroslav Klose (137) and Philipp Lahm (113) as well as the current injury to Bastian Schweinsteiger (108) he is the only player in the current squad to have more than 100 caps.
Record goalscorer: Miroslav Klose tops the list with 71 goals, closely followed by the legendary Gerd Müller who scored 68 times for Germany. Müller’s goals came in just 62 appearances, whereas Klose played 137 times. In the current squad Lukas Podolski has scored the most times (47). His nearest rivals for the crown are Thomas Müller (24) and André Schürrle (17).
Kits: Germany will wear their traditional white kit against Ireland tonight, as they do for all home games, and don’t forget, the fourth star will be on the chest.
Referee: The game will be officiated by Slovenian Damir Skomina, who also refereed the 4-2 victory over Greece in the 2012 European Championship quarterfinal.
