Four-time World Cup winners Germany take on Japan in the first match of Group E on Wednesday 23rd November at 10am.

Spain and either Costa Rica or New Zealand join these two in Group E which makes this a huge game for Japan who will be eager to cause an upset by picking up points against one of the tournaments favourites.

Germany had a relatively disappointing Euro 2020 campaign where they scraped out of Group F thanks to a late goal from Leon Goretzka to take a point away from their final group match against Hungary to finish in second place with four points. They were knocked out of the competition by England in the next round, conceding a total of seven goals across the four games played.

Despite Germany’s poor Euro 2020 performances and the fact that they failed to progress past the group stages of the 2018 World Cup, losing to both Mexico and South Korea, it seems people haven’t lost faith just yet as Hansi Flick’s side are as short as 8/1 with some bookies to win this year’s tournament.

Many believe Hansi Flick is the man to turn things around with the German national side after it has gone through four years of mismanagement which has resulted in their FIFA ranking dropping from 1st in 2018 to 12th in 2022. The former Bayern Munich is a master strategist but whether or not he can get his team organised to the level that they once were in time for this year’s World Cup is yet to be determined.

Japan appeared at their first World Cup finals in 1998 and have qualified for every one since. They’ve reached the Round of 16 in three of their six tournaments but will do extremely well to achieve that this time around.

Being drawn into a group along with Germany and Spain wouldn’t have best pleased the Japan side and they are 3/1 outsiders to make it out of the group with with the two favourites being heavily odds on.

Germany are 2/5 for the win which isn’t surprising and rather than a straight bet on the win, they would make a good addition to an accumulator at that price.

I’d be reluctant to back Germany too heavily in the early stages of the competition and would much rather see how they play against Japan before considering a bet against Spain on the following Sunday.

This isn’t a huge betting game for me but I do think that Germany will pick up three points. I’d be willing to place a relatively small wager on Germany 2-0 but there aren’t too many other markets that stand out to me.

Germany vs Japan team news and line ups will be published here once full World Cup squads have been announced.