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Key events
Read Jonathan Liu’s match review
Team news
Germany remains unchanged for the third time in a row. Switzerland bring on Breel Embolo and Fabian Rieder for Xherdan Shaqiri and Ruben Vargas.
Switzerland (3-4-2-1) Sommer; Shar, Akanji, Rodriguez; Widmer, Froyler, Xhaka, Ebischer; Reeder, Ndoye; Embolo.
Reserves: Stergiu, Elvedi, Zakaria, Okafor, Steffen, Mwogo, Zuber, Zesiger, Ciero, Vargas, Dua, Kobel, Shaqiri, Yashari, Amduni.
Germany (4-2-3-1) Neuer; Kimmich, Rüdiger, Tach, Mittelstadt; Andric, Kroos; Wirtz, Gundogan, Musiala; Havertz.
Subs: Raum, Gross, Fulkrug, Fürich, Baumann, Müller, Bayer, Schlotterbeck, Anton, Sane, Henrichs, ter Stegen, Koch, Kahn, Undav.
Referee Daniele Orsato (Italy)
Preamble
Hello and welcome to live, minute-by-minute coverage of Switzerland against Germany in Frankfurt. This particular tire is both dead and alive. Dead because both teams have qualified for the last 16*, alive because of what happens next. Germany must avoid defeat to win the group and secure a theoretically easier match in the round of 16.
Here’s where it gets tricky. The winners of that group will play group runners-up Denmark in the round of 16 – but then they’ll be on their way to face exciting Spain in the quarter-finals.
The runners-up, by contrast, would be set to face Italy, Croatia or Albania in the round of 16 – tough but winnable – and then potentially group winner Denmark in the quarter-finals.
We do this at every damn tournament, don’t we: plan the whole thing to within an inch of its life, even though we know damn well it never works out that way. Let’s just enjoy some football and let the chips fall where they may.
Start 8 in the evening.
* Switzerland haven’t officially qualified, but the turn of events needed to drop them is so unlikely that if the Guardian were promoting gambling, I’d invite you to take your own chances.
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