It was however, a game of two halves for Australia as they started slowly out of the blocks and were lucky to go in at the break 2-1 down, but aside from the opening five minutes, their second half improvement was immense. 

Australia v Germany pic special

Formations

Formations and movement tendencies

There were no surprise selections from Ange Postecoglou, whose team lined up in a similar way to the previous two fixtures. Massimo Luongo started on the right next to Mark Milligan as a holding midfielder, whilst Brighton-bound Mat Ryan regained his position in goal from Mitch Langerak.

Aziz Behich started at left wing, with midfield maestros Aaron Mooy and Tom Rogic as the two advanced central midfielders. 

Joachim Loew announced a young German team prior to the tournament commencing, yet the majority of the squad still play in top-class leagues, such as the Bundesliga, Italy’s Serie A and the French Ligue 1. Arsenal’s Shkodran Mustafi was paired with Antonio Rudiger at centre-back, with Joshua Kimmich, who has been labelled ‘the modern-day Philipp Lahm’, taking his place on the right-side of defence.

Sebastian Rudy, whose break-out season with overachieving Hoffenheim has earned him a move to champions Bayern Munich, sat at the base of the German midfield, combining with Stindl and Goretzka. Captain Julian Draxler started on the left.

Australia v Germany pic special