Location: Red Bull Arena, Leipzig, Germany
Date: Monday, November 17th, 2025
Time: 9:00pm local time (2:45pm EST)
After a sluggish first half against Luxembourg on Friday, Germany turned it up a couple notches and got a key win behind Nick Woltemade’s first international brace. Germany and Slovakia are tied atop UEFA’s Group A in FIFA World Cup Qualifying but Germany holds the crucial tiebreaker on goal differential.
This means that a win or draw will punch Germany’s ticket to the FIFA World Cup next summer. A loss would award the automatic bid to Slovakia and Germany would have to fight through the two knockout rounds in a playoff format.
Until this year, Germany had defeated Slovakia in all three competitive matches. In September, Slovakia shocked Germany with a 2-0 result.
Slovakia has held clean sheet in all four wins throughout the qualifying round. Slovakia’s lone 2-0 loss came at the hands of Northern Ireland.
Unless his ankle is no longer attached to his body, Joshua Kimmich will return to the lineup to replace Ridle Baku. Waldemar Anton was decent in Nico Schlotterbeck’s absence and Anton should start again next to temporary captain Jonathan Tah. The rest of the starting lineup will likely remained unchanged from the Luxembourg match.
Felix Nmecha played well as a Leon Goretzka replacement in the second half. After serving a one-game yellow card accumulation suspension, Karim Adeyemi will also return to the game day lineup and be a burst of energy. The rest of the substitutes will be dependent on the flow and result of the match.
19-year old Said El Mala was pushed down to the U-21 squad but supposedly that was the plan all along. This doesn’t feel like a match that Julian Nagelsmann will be relying on less experienced players.
Slovakia’s manager, Italian Francesco Calzona, has shown different formations throughout qualifying but favors the 4-3-3 setup. Captain Milan Škriniar, midfielder Matúš Bero, and goalkeeper Martin Dúbravka have played every minute of qualifying. With a heavy emphasis on defense, no Slovakian player has scored more than one goal.
Check out the latest episode of Bavarian Podcast Works on Spotify!
