National football team: 1022. International match: reunion and Kimmich record

Balance sheet: The German national soccer team will play its 1022nd international match on Saturday (8:45 p.m./RTL) in Freiburg against Bosnia-Herzegovina. After the 2-1 win in the first leg and the following 1-0 win against the Netherlands in October, the DFB team has 589 wins in their international match record. There were also 212 draws and 220 defeats. The goal difference is 2290:1202.

Nations League: For the first time, the national team has qualified for the knockout rounds of the UEFA competition. The quarter-finals will follow in March and, if successful, the final round in June. A win against Bosnia-Herzegovina would also ensure group victory, which would mean a supposedly easier opponent for the first elimination round. Curious: If the Netherlands and Hungary draw at the same time, Germany will definitely be group winners before the preliminary round ends on Tuesday in Hungary, even if they lose against Bosnia-Herzegovina.

National coach: Julian Nagelsmann completes his first calendar year as national coach with the game against Bosnia-Herzegovina and the following duel in Hungary. In total, he has ten wins, four draws and three defeats in 17 games since October 2023 (34:17 goals). Two of the three defeats came exactly a year ago in the disappointing tests against Turkey (2:3) and in Austria (0:2). So far in 2024, only the European Championship quarter-finals against Spain (1:2 nV) have been lost.

Bosnia-Herzegovina: Five weeks after the 2-1 win in Zenica, there is a quick reunion with the opponents Edin Dzeko and Ermedin Demirović, who are well known in the Bundesliga. The DFB’s still tight record against Bosnia-Herzegovina is decent. Shortly before the 2010 World Cup there was a 3-1 win in a friendly with goals from Bastian Schweinsteiger (2) and Philipp Lahm. In 2002 they drew 1-1 in Sarajevo, Carsten Jancker scored for Germany.

Freiburg: The DFB team is playing in the new Europa Park stadium in Freiburg for the first time. In the four international matches in the old Dreisamstadion there were always sweeping victories in test matches every two years: in 2000 an 8:2 against Liechtenstein, in 2002 a 7:0 against Kuwait, in 2004 a 7:0 against Malta and in 2006 shortly before the home World Cup a 7: 0 against Luxembourg. The only defeat was ages ago. In 1913, Switzerland lost 2-1 at the Freiburg FC sports field.

Captain: Joshua Kimmich can reach several marks on Saturday. With his 96th international match, he draws level with former world and European champion Berti Vogts. The 17th appearance in a Nations League game is a record ahead of Timo Werner (16). And with his 13th appearance as DFB starting eleven captain, the 29-year-old draws level with his former Munich club colleague Bastian Schweinsteiger.

Experience: With his 95 international matches to date, Kimmich is by far the most experienced player in Nagelsmann’s current squad. He is followed by Antonio Rüdiger with 76 appearances and Leroy Sané, who has played 65 times for Germany so far. The only newcomer to the squad is third goalkeeper Stefan Ortega Moreno from Manchester City. The other goalkeepers Oliver Baumann (TSG Hoffenheim) and Alexander Nübel (VfB Stuttgart) celebrated their DFB debut in October.

Kader: That’s unusual. After the loss of Angelo Stiller from VfB Stuttgart, Nagelsmann only has 22 players in the squad; UEFA allows 23 players. The national coach has so far refrained from making a subsequent nomination. Stiller’s Stuttgart colleague Deniz Undav, who scored both German goals in the first leg, is also not there.

Goalscorers: Only three players have already scored more than ten goals in the national jersey. The top scorer is Serge Gnabry with 22 goals, followed by Kai Havertz (19) from Arsenal and his Munich teammate Leroy Sané (13).

Yellow cards: Nico Schlotterbeck is missing from his hometown of Freiburg due to a yellow card ban. The Dortmund central defender received his second warning in the current competition against the Netherlands. Joshua Kimmich, Jonathan Tah, Antonio Rüdiger and Florian Wirtz go into the game pre-loaded. If they received another yellow card, their international year would be over as they would be banned from playing against Hungary.