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The Germany national team will take on Ukraine and Greece in their final two matches ahead of the home European Championships this summer. The match against Ukraine is scheduled to take place on June 3 at the Max-Morlock-Stadion in Nürnberg (20:45 CEST), while the clash with EURO 2004 champions Greece will be held at the Borussia-Park in Mönchengladbach on June 7 (20:45 CEST).
Both Ukraine and Greece are still in the mix to play at the tournament in Germany this summer. On Thursday, Ukraine take on Bosnia-Herzegovina in their playoff semifinal, while Greece will have to come out on top against Kazakhstan if they want to progress to the playoff final.
Germany head coach Julian Nagelsmann was happy about the choice of opponents: “Ahead of the EUROs, we’ve got to make sure we come up against a variety of playing styles and set-ups to get ready for our group matches. Ukraine and Greece are two passionate sides that are strong in the tackle – recently, we’ve run into trouble against similar teams. That’s why these games will be good tests after our upcoming matches against two of the best teams in Europe – France and the Netherlands. They’ll really get people in the mood for the EUROs – we can’t wait.”
Rudi Völler, Germany’s sporting director, was also excited: “The last matches before the start of a major tournament are always special. The team’s right in the middle of their preparation, every player is fighting for their spot in the side and it’s the last time the head coach can experiment. We’re holding a training camp in two cities in the East that love football and have historic ties to the sport, but unfortunately neither are host cities for this summer’s tournament. We’re doing this because this year’s championships should be for the whole of Germany, and the national team wants to get all the fans involved as they progress through the tournament.”
Germany have played nine times against both Ukraine and Greece. They’ve come out on top on five occasions against the former, with four draws in the remaining matches. The most recent encounter between the sides was Germany’s 1000th international match, which ended in a 3-3 draw in Bremen. Germany have also never lost against Greece (six wins, three draws). The sides last met in the quarter-finals of EURO 2012 – Germany booked their spot in the next round thanks to goals from Philipp Lahm, Sami Khedira, Miroslav Klose and Marco Reus (4-2).
The national team gathered in Frankfurt on Monday and started to gear up for their first international matches of the year at the DFB-Campus. The Germany players will travel to Lyon on Friday and will take on two-time FIFA World Cup winners France on the Saturday (21:00 CET). They will return to Frankfurt the day after, where they’ll play the Netherlands on Tuesday (20:45 CET).
From May 26 to 31, Germany will hold a training camp in Thuringia, before they relocate to their base camp at the adidas HOMEGROUND in Herzogenaurach.
EURO 2024 will kick off on June 14 when Germany take on Scotland in Munich (21:00 CEST). The national team will then play their remaining group games against Hungary on June 19 (18:00 CEST) in Stuttgart and against Switzerland on June 23 (21:00 CEST) in Frankfurt.
