Germany's search for their first victory of their 2020-21 UEFA Nations League campaign will continue on Saturday night when they head to Kiev to take on Ukraine.
Joachim Low's side are currently third in Group 4 of League A with just two points from their two matches, while Ukraine are second in the section with three points to show from their opening two fixtures.
Match preview
© Reuters
Ukraine made the perfect start to their 2020-21 UEFA Nations League campaign, recording a 2-1 victory over Switzerland on September 3, which would have left them in a confident mood ahead of a trip to Spain.
Andriy Shevchenko's side suffered a 4-0 defeat to La Roja in Madrid, though, and will also enter this match off the back of a 7-1 loss to France in an international friendly on Wednesday night.
Ukraine, as mentioned, are still ahead of Germany in the section, though, and will mainly be using this tournament as preparation for next summer's European Championships.
The Yellow and Blues actually finished ahead of Portugal in their Euro 2020 qualifying section, remaining unbeaten across eight matches, collecting an impressive 20 points in the process.
© Reuters
Germany, meanwhile, will enter this weekend's contest off the back of a 3-3 draw with Turkey in a friendly on Wednesday night. The hosts were leading 3-2 until the final exchanges when Kenen Karaman came up with a stoppage-time leveller, meaning that Low's side are now winless in three matches.
Indeed, they started their 2020-21 UEFA Nations League campaign with successive 1-1 draws against Spain and Switzerland, meaning that there is a degree of pressure on the visitors on Saturday night.
Germany breezed through their qualification section for next summer's European Championships, winning seven of their eight matches to finish top of Group C ahead of the Netherlands.
Incredibly, though, Die Mannschaft are still waiting for their first win in the UEFA Nations League, losing two and drawing four of their six previous matches in the competition.
Low's side finished bottom of their section in the 2018-19 edition of the tournament, picking up just two points from their four matches against the Netherlands and France.
Ukraine Nations League form: WWWLWL
Ukraine form (all competitions): WWDWLL
Germany Nations League form: DLLDDD
Germany form (all competitions): WWWDDD
Team News
© Reuters
Ukraine incredibly selected 45-year-old assistant coach Oleksandr Shovkovskiy in their squad for the clash with France after a coronavirus outbreak led to three goalkeepers being forced to withdraw.
Shovkovskiy retired from professional football in 2016 and has not played for the national side since 2012 but is currently the reserve to Georgiy Bushchan, who debuted against France.
Taras Stepanenko was among those unavailable to travel due to a positive coronavirus test, while Mykola Matviyenko, Viktor Kovalenko, Marlos and Junior Moraes were also forced to withdraw after the rest of the Shakhtar Donetsk squad were placed into isolation.
Manchester City's Oleksandr Zinchenko is also not in the squad through injury, meaning that it will once again be a patched-up Ukraine on Saturday night, with West Ham United's Andriy Yarmolenko potentially leading the line for the second match in succession, although Roman Yaremchuk is another option in attack.
As for Germany, Low is expected to ring the changes from the side that started against Turkey, with Manuel Neuer, Toni Kroos, Joshua Kimmich, Timo Werner and Serge Gnabry all potentially coming into the XI.
Benjamin Henrichs, Nico Schulz, Niklas Stark, Nadiem Amiri and Mahmoud Dahoud have all dropped out of the squad ahead of this match, with a 23-man party confirmed on Thursday afternoon.
Lukas Klostermann and Robin Gosens could feature in the wing-back positions, while Antonio Rudiger should feature in central defence despite struggling for football at Chelsea this season.
Ukraine possible starting lineup:
Bushchan; Konoplya, Zabarnyi, Mykolenko, Mykhaylichenko; Malinovskiy, Shaparenko, Kharatin, Makarenko, Zubkov; Yarmolenko
Germany possible starting lineup:
Neuer; Rudiger, Sule, Can; Klostermann, Kimmich, Kroos, Gosens; Havertz; Werner, Gnabry
We say: Ukraine 1-3 Germany
Ukraine will again be far from at full strength, even if they manage to recover a couple of players in time for the contest. Germany, on the other hand, are taking a strong squad to Kiev, and we expect the visitors to pick up all three points in relatively routine fashion.
Top betting tip
Our expert tipster partners at Sporita.com are predicting an away win in this match. Click here to find out what else they are predicting for this game and for more of their tried-and-tested football tips.Away Win:dataData Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Germany win with a probability of 38.09%. A win for Ukraine had a probability of 35.07% and a draw had a probability of 26.8%.
The most likely scoreline for a Germany win was 0-1 with a probability of 10.36%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-2 (8.25%) and 0-2 (6.71%). The likeliest Ukraine win was 1-0 (9.86%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (12.75%). The actual scoreline of 1-2 was predicted with an 8.3% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Germany would win this match.
