A well-oiled machine will take on a one-man army in this fierce battle. It is a usual belief that the better team always wins. But anything can happen in football.
Germany and Portugal will face-off in the first game scheduled for Group G. Broadly speaking, there are 3 Groups of Death for this World Cup. Group B, Group D and Group G are all hailed as being Groups of Death. And Germany vs Portugal will kick-start the last group into one of the two scenarios: their dreaded spiral to glory, or eternal damnation of no-knockouts.
However, this game might be decided sooner than it kicks-off with an injury list that is sure to shape the teams’ destinies. Marco Reus is ruled out of the entire tournament from an ankle injury and will not kick a ball for Germany in this World Cup. Prior to this game, there are shadows hanging over the fitness of Cristiano Ronaldo, the star-studded Ballon d’Or-winning captain of Portugal. Having completed the pre-tournament friendly matches, he pulled up an injury in training and faces an if-and-maybe situation to start this game based on coach Paulo Bento’s decision: Should risk the player in this game, or save him for the ties against Ghana and the USA? Doubts also hang over the fitness levels of the midfield generals for the German team, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Sami Khedira. Neither may start the match with pre-match reports suggesting that coach Joachim Low is opting to keep them out of the squad for the opening game of their campaign. Manuel Neuer was also doubtful to start the game with a niggling shoulder injury but has passed a fitness test and should be available.
Germany is expected to stick to their 4-2-3-1 formation with a makeshift back-four. Mats Hummels and Per Mertesacker will stronghold the central defensive positions while Benedikt Howedes and Jerome Boateng will fill in at left-back and right-back respectively. The central midfield positions will have the dependable Philipp Lahm start alongside Toni Kroos, who Joachim Low tends to favour. The attacking midfield positions will have Mesut Ozil down the middle, Lukas Podolski on the left flank and Mario Gotze on the right flank. Thomas Muller will be the lone target man.