Live Germany vs Portugal: Lineups and latest updates from Nations League semi-final
Good evening and welcome to the penultimate cycle of the season that will not die, the international phase! And tonight's treat is the first of the Uefa Nations League semi-finals between hosts (for the finals tournament) Germany and 2019 winners Portugal from Munich's Allianz Arena. If you can't remember how both teams got here – no need for self-chastisement – let me remind you that Portugal won Group 1, unbeaten in six games against Croatia, Scotland and Poland, taking 14 points from four wins and two draws, an identical record to Germany's, winners of Group 3 having seen off Holland, Hungary and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Tomorrow France play Spain for the other place in Sunday's final and then we can move on to Gianni Infantino's ninth circle of hell, the Club World Cup.
Germany, whose rebuilding phase under Julian Nagelsmann is progressing smoothly enough to make them serious contenders at next year's World Cup if they can find the right centre-forward, are missing the injured Jamal Musiala, Antonio Rudiger and Nico Schlotterbeck. Portugal, who seem determined to allow Cristiano Ronaldo to carry on and play at his seventh World Cup, are without only Joao Cancelo of their regular starters and have PSG's Nuno Mendes and Vitinha available after the Champions League triumph at the same stadium if they have shaken off the toll of celebration.
Germany's captain Joshua Kimmich is in line to win his 100th cap tonight and if he does so he will join Lothar Matthaüs (who, for 10 years played for West Germany), Miroslav Klose, Lukas Podolski, Thomas Müller, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Manuel Neuer, Phulipp Lahm, Jürgen Klinsmann (also West Germany), Toni Kroos, Jürgen Kohler (partly FRG), Per Mertesacker, Franz Benckenbauer (all FRG) and Thomas Hassler (partly FRG) as centurions. That's far more than I had imagined.
One thing that should not thwart Kimmich is the weather, though it looks likely to be a wild evening in Munich. The German national team's account on X has issued a storm warning to fans, asking them to allow plenty of time for travel to the stadium and to bring raincoats, ponchos or small umbrellas because of the risk of 'adverse weather conditions'. Germany's national weather service has warned of the risk of torrential storms, high winds and hail throughout Bavaria. Here comes summer!
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