🇩🇪 Germany vs 🇨🇼 Curaçao

Germany were knocked out in the group stage in both 2018 and 2022. For the nation that reached four finals between 2002 and 2014, this is considered a genuine collapse — the German equivalent of a national crisis. This tournament is their attempt to prove they've fixed it.

Their squad is built around Florian Wirtz, 22, who plays for Bayer Leverkusen and is considered one of the best players in Europe right now. If Germany do well, he'll be the name everyone's talking about. If they go out in the group stage again, he'll be the answer to a pub quiz question.

Germany are in Group E with Curaçao, Ivory Coast and Ecuador. They should get through. Getting knocked out again would trigger a full-scale national football inquest and probably some excellent documentary-making about What Went Wrong.

The manager Julian Nagelsmann is 38, making him one of the youngest at the tournament. He's been quietly rebuilding Germany's approach after years of cautious, results-first football. Whether it's worked is the question June will answer.

They hosted Euro 2024 and reached the quarter-finals before losing to Spain — which felt like genuine progress compared to the previous two World Cups. This is either a rebuild or a blip, and nobody quite knows which yet.

Curaçao are at their first ever World Cup — a Caribbean island of 150,000 people. One hundred and fifty thousand people. They qualified for the greatest football tournament on earth. If you want a feel-good story at this World Cup, start here.

They qualified through CONCACAF against Panama, Honduras and Jamaica — serious football nations in the region. This wasn't a gift or a lucky draw. They earned it in proper competition.

Curaçao are in Group E with Germany, Ivory Coast and Ecuador. They will be heavy underdogs in every single game. Their players will also be at the World Cup, which is more than almost everyone who has ever played football can say.

Several of their players have Dutch heritage and played youth football in the Netherlands — which gives the squad a tactical sophistication you might not expect from a Caribbean island of 150,000 people.

Leandro Bacuna, who has played in the Premier League and Championship, is one of their most recognisable players internationally. He brings real experience of high-level European football and will be the name people look up after their first group game.