England vs Germany in the knockout stages of a major international tournament. It doesn’t get much bigger than that.
The old enemies will go head-to-head on Tuesday at Wembley fighting for a place in the quarter-finals of Euro 2020.
Gareth Southgate’s side will go into the clash as slight favourites after picking up seven points from the group stages.
As for Germany, they scraped through in second in the ‘Group of Death’ despite only managing four points.
How will the game go on Tuesday evening?
Well before the match kicks off, Southgate has some rather difficult selection decisions to make.
Ben Chilwell and Mason Mount are likely to be available having been made to self-isolate after coming into close contact with Scotland’s Billy Gilmore.
But does Southgate stick with Jack Grealish and Bukayo Saka, who performed so well against the Czech Republic in the final group game?
Does Jordan Henderson come into the side? Will Phil Foden return?
We’re just glad we’re not the ones having to pick the starting XI because, whatever Southgate picks, people are going to disagree.
However, it seems the manager has already made up his mind.
That’s according to the Daily Mail who claim that both Foden and Mount are set to start against Germany. The report states that means Saka will miss out, while we can only assume Grealish could also be dropped.
It’s a move that may not go down too well with English fans.
The report adds that Foden was supposed to start the last game against the Czech Republic before Mount had to quarantine. Southgate didn’t want to risk Foden, who was on a yellow card, missing the last-16 tie.
The Manchester City man is expected to replace Saka, despite his bright performance.
Meanwhile, Mount will have to prove he’s fully fit after training individually with his quarantine ending at midnight on Monday.
England have trained in a back three this week but it’s still uncertain whether Southgate will change his system ahead of the match.
After three defeats to Germany in tournaments in the last 30 years, defender John Stones insists that’s simply a motivation for the team.
"That’s one of the things that’s motivating us," said Stones. "It’s at the forefront of our minds.
"No England team has lifted a European Championship trophy before. If we did, it would be history. I don’t want to say we would be legends. We want to do it for ourselves, our families but for us as a nation.
"We know how privileged we are to play for England and to do it back home or to do it in England would be extra-special. We want to make history. We really want to change the way the nation looks at the team and English football. I think we’ve taken massive strides in doing that since 2018 and it’s about doing it again.
"I don’t think we should put any more pressure on ourselves but there’s a trophy there to be won here that’s never been won before and we should be super-excited by that. There’s a real hunger there which is so natural to everyone.
"I haven’t seen it as much in previous squads before 2018. When we come up against Germany on Tuesday, it’s a time to really test ourselves and show not just Europe, but the world, what a good team we are.
"Obviously we give Germany massive respect as you do any top class team but we have to go out and show ourselves and implement our game."