Germany are now under pressure as they prepare to take on Northern Ireland this weekend

Germany vs Northern Ireland prediction

Julian Nagelsmann will have to be under pressure as Germany boss, albeit Die Mannschaft’s squad does appear to be quite underwhelming and lacking high level quality. They kicked off their UEFA qualification campaign for the 2026 FIFA World Cup with a 2-0 loss to Slovakia in Bratislava the other day.

They now face a Northern Ireland side that, in Michael O’Neill’s second stint in charge, have been improving in the last 12 to 18 months and the Green and White Army managed to comfortably defeat Luxembourg by three goals to one the other day, courtesy of goals from Jamie Reid, Shea Charles and Justin Devenny.

The Northern Irish have developed some very good young players of late and will seek to make things very tough for the Germans, but Germany remain favourites here.

Germany have never lost to Northern Ireland, winning nine of the 12 meetings and drawing the other three. They last met in the Euro 2020 qualifiers and the Irish suffered a 6-0 thrashing on German soil.

Probable line-ups

Nagelsmann should make a few changes after such a poor performance on Thursday while O’Neill is likely to stick with the players who served him so well in Luxembourg.

Germany: Baumann, Tah, Raum, Mittelstadt, Kimmich, Goretzka, Wirtz, Adeyemi, Woltemade.

Northern Ireland: Peacock-Farrell, Toal, Hume, McNair, Bradley, Devenny, McCann, S Charles, Galbraith, Reid, Price.