On Saturday evening, the German national team will play against Peru in the Mainzer MEWA Arena in their first game since their disappointing performance in the World Cup. This friendly match marks the beginning of their preparation for the Home European Championship 2024 and will show how the team under new national coach Hansi Flick deals with the WM debacle and which players he plans to use for the future.
It is clear that Flick is aiming for a realignment of the team, as he has left out experienced players such as Thomas Müller and Ilkay Gündogan in his squad selection for the two friendlies against Peru and Belgium. Instead, he wants to give younger players a chance and has focused on a positional profile and promising players in the offense, such as Florian Wirtz from Bayer Leverkusen, Kai Havertz, Serge Gnabry, and Leroy Sané. Although the latter was not included, Kevin Schade, who has shown good performances in the Premier League since his winter move from Freiburg to Brentford, will make his debut for the national team.
Defense has been the problem area of the team in recent years, but with Niklas Süle and Niko Schlotterbeck from BVB, Flick has found a promising central defender duo. Antonio Rüdiger from Real Madrid will also be used in important games, although he, like Süle, Rüdiger, Müller, and Gündogan, will get a break.
The game against Peru will take place on Saturday, March 25th, 2023, at 8:45 pm in the MEWA Arena in Mainz and is an international friendly. It will be exciting to see how the new German national team performs under Flick and how they prepare for the upcoming European Championship.