{"id":850061,"date":"2026-03-25T20:38:33","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T20:38:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/850061\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T20:38:33","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T20:38:33","slug":"report-three-spots-up-for-grabs-in-germanys-world-cup-starting-lineup-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/850061\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: Three spots up for grabs in Germany\u2019s World Cup starting lineup"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the penultimate set of international matches before the World Cup upon the football world, fans are wondering who will take the pitch for their teams in their first games in North America. According to Bild<\/a>, Germany\u2019s starting eleven is nearing completion, but there are three spots that remain under question.<\/p>\n

The first spot is the center back pairing. Bayern Munich\u2019s Jonathan Tah and and Borussia Dortmund\u2019s Nico Schlotterbeck have been starting for the national team in their most recent games, but the return of Real Madrid\u2019s Antonio R\u00fcdiger might change things up. R\u00fcdiger and Tah started at the Euros in 2024, while Schlotterbeck was used mostly as a backup. R\u00fcdiger has not performed at his usual standard for Germany recently, though, so the decision remains open.<\/p>\n

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The second and third spots are both in attack. One of the questions is who will join Bayern\u2019s Jamal Musiala and Liverpool\u2019s Florian Wirtz in the trident behind the striker, assuming coach Julian Nagelsmann plays a 4-2-3-1 formation. Bild claims that Bayern\u2019s Serge Gnabry and Bayern alum Leroy San\u00e9 are the frontrunners for the position. San\u00e9 had the better outing in Germany\u2019s most recent games, but his form for Galatasaray has been rather patchy, while Gnabry has picked up the pace in Munich.<\/p>\n

The final question is the striker, which is apparently a three-way battle at the moment. For some reason, Arsenal\u2019s Kai Havertz is reportedly in pole position for the role, despite the fact that he has rarely, if ever, had a good game for the national team as a No. 9, and he has only just made his return after a long injury. Nick Woltemade started up top in the World Cup qualifiers, and delivered some good performances, but his stagnant form for Newcastle United seems to have damaged his chances. Deniz Undav is the final choice for the role, although his recent record for VfB Stuttgart should elevate his chances \u2013 no other player in the Bundesliga has scored more goals than him this season, apart from Harry Kane.<\/p>\n

The rest of the lineup is set as follows: TSG Hoffenheim\u2019s Oliver Baumann will be in goal, captain Joshua Kimmich and RB Leipzig\u2019s David Raum will play at full back, while the midfield will feature a Bayern tandem in Leon Goretzka and Aleksandar Pavlovi\u0107. The latter will miss the March internationals with a hip problem, though, so it remains to be seen who will take his place against Switzerland and Ghana.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the penultimate set of international matches before the World Cup upon the football world, fans are wondering…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":850062,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5310],"tags":[17240,161,1062,4113,179149,76899,2000,299,2912,1824,19912,4149,63570,22818,66338,1624,118571,136763,67273,179,3047,67409,136762,242686,544,25639,2600,124506,45118],"class_list":["post-850061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-germany","tag-antonio-rudiger","tag-arsenal","tag-bayern-munich","tag-borussia-dortmund","tag-david-raum","tag-deniz-undav","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-florian-wirtz","tag-germany","tag-ghana","tag-harry-kane","tag-jamal-musiala","tag-jonathan-tah","tag-joshua-kimmich","tag-kai-havertz","tag-leipzig","tag-leon-goretzka","tag-leroy-sane","tag-liverpool","tag-newcastle-united","tag-nick-woltemade","tag-nico-schlotterbeck","tag-oliver-baumann","tag-real-madrid","tag-serge-gnabry","tag-switzerland","tag-tsg-hoffenheim","tag-vfb-stuttgart"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116291744796332725","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=850061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/850062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=850061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=850061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=850061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}