Hungary 0-3 Portugal was the final score in the early game, though that doesn’t really tell the story of the game. All three goals came in the last eight minutes, two from the record-breaking Cristiano Ronaldo.
Karim Benzema plays at a major tournament for the first since France’s team 1-0 defeat to Germany in the World Cup quarter-final seven years ago. Germany’s recallees (is that a word? It is now!) Mats Hummels and Thomas Muller also start.
France (4-D-2) Lloris; Pavard, Varane, Kimpembe, Hernandez; Kante; Pogba, Rabiot; Griezmann; Benzema, Mbappe.
Substitutes: Mandanda, Maignan, Lenglet, Lemar, Giroud, Dembele, Tolisso, Zouma, Digne, Coman, Ben Yedder, Kounde.
Germany (3-4-3) Neuer; Rudiger, Hummels, Ginter; Kimmich, Gundogan, Kroos, Gosens; Havertz, Gnabry, Muller.
Substitutes: Leno, Trapp, Halstenberg, Volland, Werner, Sule, Klostermann, Neuhaus, San, Emre Can, Koch, Gunter.
Referee Carlos del Cerro Grande (Spain).
Hello and welcome to live coverage of France v Germany in Munich. This is a semi-final dressed up as a group game. The most famous matches between these two - 1982, 1986, 1982, 2016, 1982, NINETEEN EIGHTY TWO - have all been for a place in the final of the World Cup or European Championship. This match, the first time they have ever met in the group stages, is a rare treat - football’s equivalent of Radiohead playing the John Peel Stage on Friday afternoon.
France are both the world champions and the best team in the world. But we said that about Germany before Russia 2018 and they embarrassed themselves, so anything’s possible, especially in a group of death. Paul Doyle, peerless as ever, makes the case both for and against France in this article.
Germany have not been in the top 10 of the Fifa rankings since that World Cup fiasco. Their recent form, depending on your perspective, has been laughably bad or ominously bad. They lost 6-0 to shot-shy Spain in the Nations League, and were also beaten at home by North Macedonia. But they plugged Latvia 7-1 in their final warm-up game, and Joachim Low has a star-studded squad for his final assignment as Germany manager.
So does Didier Deschamps. Tonight a football field will be shared by, among others, Kylian Mbappe, Joshua Kimmich, Karim Benzema, Serge Gnabry, N’Golo Kante, Toni Kroos, Paul Pogba, Thomas Muller, Antoine Griezmann and Kai Havertz. In a group game!
Kick off 8pm in London, 9pm in Munich and Paris.
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