Germany - Group C
The reigning World Champions qualified with the minimum of fuss and once again look more than capable of reaching the finals stages of Euro 2016, but recent friendly defeats to France and England show that maybe there are signs of a few cracks forming.
Get to know: Germany
Though they suffered 2 defeats along the way, qualification for Euro 2016 never really looked in any doubt for Joachim Low’s men as they came through a tricky group featuring Poland, Scotland and the Republic of Ireland. The German defence was uncharacteristically porous during qualification and they conceded a very unGermanic 9 goals along the way including 3 to Scotland, 2 to the Ireland and 1 to Georgia.
In the group stages, they won 7 games, drew 1 and lost 2, scoring 24 goals, conceding 9 and ending up with a +15 goal difference.
In the draw for the main event, Germany were placed in Group C, alongside Poland (again), Northern Ireland and Ukraine.
Fixtures:
June 12 vs. Ukraine 7pm – Stade Pierre Mauroy, Lille
June 15 vs. Poland 7pm – Stade de France, Saint-Denis
June 21 vs. Northern Ireland 4pm – Parc des Princes, Paris
Goal scorers:
During qualification, Germany scored 24 goals
Their goal scorers were:
- Thomas Müller (9)
- Mario Götze (3)
- Max Kruse (3)
- André Schürrle (3)
- İlkay Gündoğan (2)
- Karim Bellarabi (1)
- Toni Kroos (1)
- Marco Reus (1)
- Own Goals (1)
Qualification Stat Truths:
- Scored at the joint-third highest rate: 24 goals in 10 games.
- Shot the most frequently: 19.9 per game.
- Least resilient defence of any qualifier with 6.3 shots faced per goal conceded.
- Conceded five equalisers: the joint-most in qualifying and the most of any qualifier.
- One of only two sides to outshoot their opponents in every qualifying match.
- One of only two sides to take the first shot in every qualifying match.
- Cleanest team to have qualified, averaging 6.8 fouls per match.
- Took the smallest percentage of headed shots of any qualifier with 8.5%.
- Allowed opponents the highest share of shots on target of any qualifier with 59.6%.
All data based on Germany’s’ Euro 2016 qualification campaign. Courtesy of the Press Association.