‘European Championship on home turf' is the order of the day for a dozen Bayern players on Tuesday night (21.00 CEST). The clash between World Cup winners France and record European Champions Germany brings the first big highlight of the group stage at the Allianz Arena – the preview:
Germany throws down the gauntlet
The FCB players with Germany were able to build confidence in the final warm-up match against Latvia. In last week's 7-1 win, the four Bayern players Thomas Müller (goal and assist), Serge Gnabry (goal), Leroy Sané (goal) and Joshua Kimmich (assist) were directly involved in goals. "We’ll go all the way on the pitch, give our all and do our absolute best," announced national team returnee Müller with confidence in an Instagram message to his fans before the start of the tournament. A look at the stats underlines that statement as a Germany team has never lost their first match in a European Championship finals. Since 1972 there have been seven wins and five draws.
And Germany will not hide from the World Cup winners France who many experts believe are the tournament favourites. "It's not the case that we see ourselves as the underdog. We want to win," said skipper Manuel Neuer the day before the game and he stressed that everybody in the team is "motivated from head to toe." The Germany record goalkeeper added, "every player is ready to hopefully be able to start a successful tournament." It remains to be seen if Leon Goretzka can help the cause – but the FC Bayern midfielder is an option again for the opening match after recovering from muscle injury. "He's looked good overall in terms of dealing with the workload. According to the medical section there are no risks," confirmed Germany coach Jogi Löw.
Lucas Hernández, Thomas Müller and Co. faced each other at the same place three years ago: The match in the UEFA Nation's League at the Allianz Arena ended goalless.
Bayern's Frenchman ahead of different home game
There is great anticipation amongst the for FCB players in the French squad. "All of us can hardly wait for it," and "it will be a tough battle," plus "a big match," said Benjamin Pavard in an interview with UEFA and he paid the opponents respect: "I don't see any weak points in this team." Nevertheless, Les Bleus are unbeaten in all five games against Germany (three wins, two draws) since the 1-0 quarter-final defeat at the 2014 World Cup – and the French will be looking to continue that trend on Tuesday.
"I'll be meeting a lot of friends. But they are opponents during the game. Nobody is giving anything away," Pavard said at the press conference on Friday. The right-back was in the starting eleven alongside Lucas Hernández and Corentin Tolisso in the two Euro warm-up matches against Wales and Bulgaria (both 3-0) and there is a good chance he will also be able to start on Tuesday. Kingsley Coman was recently rested and only made a brief appearance against Wales.