With wins against both Curaçao and Côte d’Ivoire from their opening two group stage matches at the World Cup how results have gone elsewhere in group E, Germany have already clinched their advancement to the knockout round of 32 as group winners. A 7-1 win against Curaçao and come-from-behind, 2-1 win over Côte d’Ivoire has been enough to see Julian Nagelsmann’s side through to the knockouts, where they will take on one of several nations still possible to face from Boston Stadium in Foxborough,
Massachusetts.
While German fans were riding a high after Deniz Undav’s second half heroics vs. Côte d’Ivoire in Toronto, there was massive injury blow for Die Mannschaft during the win as center back Nico Schlotterbeck suffered a serious ligament injury and will now be out for several months – let alone the rest of the World Cup for Germany.
Per information from Sport1 (via @iMiaSanMia), left back Nathaniel Brown is also currently carrying a slight knock in the form of an adductor issue, and he trained individually apart from the team ahead of the Ecuador match. Due to the slight problem, Nagelsmann is not expected to risk him in the Ecuador match that has no implications as far as Germany’s presence in the knockouts. On paper, in might be an exciting matchup, but in all reality, it’s a dead rubber match for the Germans that Nagelsmann will still want to carry positive momentum from ahead of next week’s round of 32 match. RB Leipzig’s David Raum is fully expected to start in place of Brown against Ecuador.
The Eintracht Frankfurt man who’s on the verge of making a move to Bayern Munich this summer has enjoyed a solid start to the World Cup, having tallied a total of 163 minutes thus far, adding a goal and an assist in the 7-1 win over Curaçao. He’ll get a precautionary rest vs Ecuador and is expected to go right back into the starting lineup for whoever Germany will wind up facing in the round of 32 on Monday.
Join the conversation!
Sign up for a user account and get:
- New, improved notifications system!
- Fewer ads
- Create community posts
- Comment on articles, community posts
- Rec comments, community posts
