England vs Germany!

Grab your flags and polish your vuvuzelas, it's time for England vs Germany! Mark Sunday 27th on your calender as one of the fiercest rivalries in football is about to spill out into the Free State Stadium. The last time these two teams played in a competitive match was 2001 in a world cup qualifier witch resulted in a 5-1 smashing by England. But you have to look back 20 years for their last World Cup meeting in witch Germany bested England in penalties after a 1-1 draw.

Although Germany have looked much the better side in qualifying, England's last performance versus Slovenia should show a glimmer of hope. England also have a tendency to pick up their performance in the knock out phase when playing the big teams.

Their history has been fairly even with England winning 12, Germany winning 10 and 5 draws between the countries. Although 7 of those England wins came before 1966. They have met four times in the world cup, three times in the knock out rounds. England has won once in the 1966 final in London, while Germany has won twice one of which was a penalty shootout and the final game in group stages was a 0-0 draw in Spain.


So who will come out on top, well Germany are favorites going into the match but take example from the Italians in the 1982 World Cup in Spain who barely made it through the group stages with a series of draws due to the under performing of their star Paolo Rossi but Rossi found his feet in the knock outs and Italy stormed their way to a World Cup title. England can only hope their under performing star Wayne Rooney can do the same.