England V Germany: The big game preview!

England's World Cup is finally up and running following their 1-0 win over Slovenia on Wednesday, and now it is time for England to face Germany in the last 16. England have only won six of their last 20 games against Germany, four have ended in draws and losing ten.

The four previous knockout matches between the teams in major international tournaments have gone into extra time and the last two have ended with penalty shootouts, and a win for the Germans.
The first full international between the two sides was a friendly match played which took place in Berlin on Saturday 10 May 1930. A match three years later at White Hart Lane was followed by a massive political row, The Football Association would not accept the Trades Union Congress's protests that the game could be used as a propaganda event by Adolf Hitler's regime. In 1938 as the FA ordered the England players, who were "reluctant, or merely indifferent to the point of mutiny", to show respect to their hosts by performing a Nazi salute before the game at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin in May 1938. England won this game 6-3. Sixteen years passed by before England and Germany met again and by this time, Germany had 2 states, the rivalry continued between England and West Germany, and although we did play East Germany, there was never the same intensity in the games.

The two sides met in February 1966 at Wembley as part of their preparations for the World Cup finals, this match was Geoff Hursts' first international appearance. England and Germany enjoyed a successful World Cup campaign and met in the final at Wembley. Germany's goal to make it 2-2 and take the game to extra-time, the much disputed third goal and Geoff Hurst's hat-trick, laid the foundations for the modern-day rivalry between the two sides. In June 1968, Germany defeated England for the first time in 38 years.

Two years later, in the quarter finals of the 1972 European Championship, England were completely outclassed by Germany at Wembley and were out of the competition after losing 3-1 on aggregate over two legs. The two sides met in friendlies during the 70's, but the next competitive match at the 1982 World Cup ended in a 0-0 draw.
Two more friendlies followed, a 3-0 win for England at the 1985 Azteca Tournament and a 3-1 defeat in Dusseldorf in 1987, before they met in the semi-finals of the 1990 World Cup, Gary Lineker scored in the 80th minute, sending the game into extra time and then penalties. Stuart Pearce and Chris Waddle missed the spot-kicks as Germany won 4-3 and went on to beat Argentina in the final.

England lost twice to Germany under Graham Taylor during the early 1990's; a 1-0 defeat at Wembley in September 1991 and 2-1 at the US Cup in America.
At the 1996 European Championship semi-finals, Alan Shearer scored in the 3rd minute before Stefan Kuntz equalised in the 16th minute and the game remained 1-1 until the end of extra-time. All five of England's penalty takers were successful but Gareth Southgate missed in sudden death with Andreas Moller putting the hosts through.

The two teams were drawn together at in the group stages at Euro 2000, held in Holland and Belgium. England won 1-0 through Shearer. Both England and Germany lost their final matches and were eliminated.

England V Germany in October 2000 was the final match to be played at Wembley before the famous old stadium was demolished and rebuilt. A poor show by us, meant that the Germans won 1-0. However, in the return game at the Olympic Stadium England took revenge, winning 5-1. England and Germany next faced each other in a friendly in August 2007 at the redeveloped Wembley with the Germans running out 2-1 winners to inflict the Three Lions' first defeat at their new home. The most recent meeting between the two sides was a friendly in November 2008 where England aided Germany's first defeat in Berlin for 35 years, winning 2-1.