The kit: Germany will come out of the tunnel in their white kit with black shorts.
Stats and facts: Germany have lost only one of their last 14 international games (ten wins, three draws). The last loss was the 2-0 defeat to France in the Euros semi-final which signaled their departure from the tournament. In their last 14 games, Germany have only conceded one goal before half-time.
Germany teams have an outstanding record during World Cup qualifiers: Having played a total of 88 games, they have only suffered two defeats (68 wins, 18 draws). Interestingly, both losses were dealt to them on their own soil: 1985 in a 1-0 loss against Portugal in Stuttgart and 2001’s 5-1 defeat to England in München. In the past 27 games in the competition, the DFB team remains undefeated (22 wins, 5 draws). The Germans have never lost away from home in the World Cup qualifiers (33 wins, 10 draws).
Thomas Müller is the only German to have played in the last 14 games for his country, with the friendly 3-1 loss against Slovakia on 29th May 2016 being the last game that he missed. Joshua Kimmich is the only player to have played every minute of the last 11 games.
Celebrations and records: Germany haven’t conceded in seven international matches, and broke a German record thanks to the clean-sheet kept against England on Wednesday. A streak of six games without conceding came only once before, between May and July in 1966. Frenchman Antoine Griezmann was the last person to have the privilege of scoring against Germany, when he did so in the semi-final of last year’s Euros. Since then, Die Mannschaft have held their opponents to a total of 648 minutes without a goal combined, which equals over ten hours.
Cards: The DFB team has only fouled a total of 22 times during the World Cup qualifiers, which is the lowest figure for all teams in Europe during this qualification phase. In second place are Germany’s next opponents, Azerbaijan, who have conceded a combined 26 fouls. Germany have also received the fewest number of cards in the tournament – unfortunately Sami Khedira picked up a yellow card.
Germany’s 16 goals in the European qualifiers puts them level with Portugal. Only Belgium have accounted for more, thanks to their 21 goals scored. Die Mannschaft have had 104 shots, with only Portugal having more (115). In their last game against San Marino, the Germany team had 40 shots against them, and no other team has had more shots in a single game.
The last six goals for Germany have all come after the half-time whistle. Germany’s opponents in the European Qualifiers’ first four games have only had a combined 17 shots on target allowed to them by Löw’s team, but Spain have also allowed the same number of shots.
The Road to Russia continues for the German national team on Sunday (18:00 CEST), only four days after their 1-0 victory in the friendly against England. Manager Joachim Löw’s team play guest to Azerbaijan in Baku, and DFB.de has all the facts ahead of the fifth matchup between the two sides.
Nothing but German victories: Germany and Azerbaijan have played four international games against one another so far. The DFB outfit have left the pitch victorious every time, scoring a total of 15 goals and conceding only two. The first meeting took place in a 2010 World Cup qualifying game on 12th August 2009, when Miroslav Klose and Bastian Schweinsteiger carried the Germany team to a 2-0 win. The reverse fixture took place on 9th September 2009 in Hannover, and saw Germany win by four goals to nil, with the goals coming from Michael Ballack (penalty), Klose twice, and Lukas Podolski.
En route to the 2012 Euros, Germany came up against Azerbaijan again. This time Germany won 6-1 in Köln and 3-1 in Azerbaijan.
A third of Germany’s 15 goals came from Miroslav Klose, who in his international career scored only more goals against Austria (six) than he did against Azerbaijan. Every Azerbaijan goal has come in the second-half.
A record start to the World Cup qualifiers: Germany are en route to the 2018 World Cup thanks to their perfect start in Group C (3-0 in Norway, 3-0 against Czech Republic, 2-0 against Northern Ireland, 8-0 in San Marino). This is the first time a Germany side has started their qualification run with four wins and zero goals conceded.
In the Road to Russia European World Cup qualifiers, only three of the 54 teams have acquired three points from all their games so far: Germany, Belgium, and Switzerland. Having said that, only Germany are yet to concede a single goal of those three teams, although England too are yet to concede but ‘only’ have ten points.
Azerbaijan are in third place in Group C. They had a good first three games, collecting seven points and conceding no goals, thanks to a 1-0 win against San Marino, 1-0 win against Norway, and a 0-0 draw in the Czech Republic. However, Northern Ireland’s 4-0 victory over them put an end to their run. Azerbaijan’s primary weakness is their toothless attack, evidenced by the fact they have only scored two goals throughout the four games.
Only twice in DFB history has a Germany side cruised through the qualifying stage winning every one of their games (minimum four games played): During the 1982 World Cup qualifying (8 wins, 33 goals for, 4 against) and ahead of the 2012 Euros (10 wins, 34 goals for, 7 against). A perfect qualification round has never been done by Germany before, meaning they would have to continue to collect all possible points, and keep a clean-sheet in every remaining game. Spain are the only team to have ever won all ten their World Cup European qualification games (2010 World Cup qualification: 10 wins, 28 goals for, 5 against).
The kit: Germany will come out of the tunnel in their white kit with black shorts.
Stats and facts: Germany have lost only one of their last 14 international games (ten wins, three draws). The last loss was the 2-0 defeat to France in the Euros semi-final which signaled their departure from the tournament. In their last 14 games, Germany have only conceded one goal before half-time.
Germany teams have an outstanding record during World Cup qualifiers: Having played a total of 88 games, they have only suffered two defeats (68 wins, 18 draws). Interestingly, both losses were dealt to them on their own soil: 1985 in a 1-0 loss against Portugal in Stuttgart and 2001’s 5-1 defeat to England in München. In the past 27 games in the competition, the DFB team remains undefeated (22 wins, 5 draws). The Germans have never lost away from home in the World Cup qualifiers (33 wins, 10 draws).
Thomas Müller is the only German to have played in the last 14 games for his country, with the friendly 3-1 loss against Slovakia on 29th May 2016 being the last game that he missed. Joshua Kimmich is the only player to have played every minute of the last 11 games.
Celebrations and records: Germany haven’t conceded in seven international matches, and broke a German record thanks to the clean-sheet kept against England on Wednesday. A streak of six games without conceding came only once before, between May and July in 1966. Frenchman Antoine Griezmann was the last person to have the privilege of scoring against Germany, when he did so in the semi-final of last year’s Euros. Since then, Die Mannschaft have held their opponents to a total of 648 minutes without a goal combined, which equals over ten hours.
Cards: The DFB team has only fouled a total of 22 times during the World Cup qualifiers, which is the lowest figure for all teams in Europe during this qualification phase. In second place are Germany’s next opponents, Azerbaijan, who have conceded a combined 26 fouls. Germany have also received the fewest number of cards in the tournament – unfortunately Sami Khedira picked up a yellow card.
Germany’s 16 goals in the European qualifiers puts them level with Portugal. Only Belgium have accounted for more, thanks to their 21 goals scored. Die Mannschaft have had 104 shots, with only Portugal having more (115). In their last game against San Marino, the Germany team had 40 shots against them, and no other team has had more shots in a single game.
The last six goals for Germany have all come after the half-time whistle. Germany’s opponents in the European Qualifiers’ first four games have only had a combined 17 shots on target allowed to them by Löw’s team, but Spain have also allowed the same number of shots.
