One of international football’s fiercest rivalries will be renewed at Euro 2020 when England entertain Germany at Wembley.
England head into the game as the bookmaker’s favourite but as we all know it’s never as straightforward as that.
This game always means a little more to both of these nations – irrespective of whether Jurgen Klopp works in England! Expect an absolute cauldron of pressure on Tuesday evening when a sporadic England look to earn their place in the final eight, but they’ll need to get past a young and somewhat inconsistent German side.
This game could very well shoot the lights out, hopefully we all close off our last sixteen round bets with a bang!
Euro 2020 Round of 16
Tuesday 29 July
Wembley Stadium
To Win (90 min)
England 31/20
Draw 22/10
Germany 37/20
To Qualify
England 15/20
Germany 19/20
England
England have only won two of their last seven meetings with their German counterparts, and both of them were on international soil. Gareth Southgate will certainly know that the betting boards are not a source of confidence and his young side will need to walk out at Wembley with puffed out chests and simply do the business required.
England haven’t offered much in front of goal this tournament, but to their credit, they are also yet to concede a goal. Questions have been asked about Southgate’s team selection, but this is also so common with England – if you ask me, the British media are often largely responsible for the pressure their own team experience going into the knockout stages of any tournament.
England have an abundance of attacking talent at their disposal – think Jack Grealish, Jadon Sancho, Harry Kane, Marcus Rashford and Raheem Sterling – but the system and approach that seems to be adopted by the Three Lions doesn’t seem to allow for too much expression in the final third.
Southgate, for better or worse, remains conservative in his approach and I would assume his defensive approach will prevail on Tuesday evening. I feel for him though, because if he opts for five defenders and gets through: he’s a national hero again… but if they get dumped out, I reckon that’s him done.
Germany
Germany will have dreams of repeating their Euro 96 glory at Wembley, but with a below-average display in the group stages, there are certainly doubts about whether Germany can make a real push for the latter stages at Euro 2020.
Reports in Germany are not exactly brimming with confidence and you get the feeling that the German nation expects a huge response on Tuesday after they escaped a truly calamitous embarrassment drawing 2-2 with a spirited Hungarian side.
Germany conceded the first goal in each of their three group games, but the only truly convincing game was against Portugal where they just never looked like losing. Die Mannschaft know that they can ask questions of anyone on their day and will want to reproduce a similar performance to the one that saw them outclass a balanced and attacking Portugal.
Joachim Low has been here before and certainly knows how to bring the best out of his players. He’ll know the importance of Germany producing big performances for the rest of the tournament and I think his confident and almost unbridled attacking approach might be the difference here.
Fortune certainly favours the brave and more so in sport. Germany should be the team under pressure here, but I don’t think they’ll play like it. Much like Spain, once the penny drops, I think Germany could prove a difficult side to get past.
Verdict: Draw 22/10
Neither side has shot the lights out at this tournament and you can’t really confidently pick a winner. With that in mind, there is a lot of value in the draw at 22/10.
