Live: Matildas take on Germany

Perhaps washed-out green didn’t sound appropriate?

We’re underway in Germany, the crowd looking pretty healthy in Duisburg.

The Matildas are in the pale green, with Germany in their traditional white…

Not sure why the Matildas can’t be in their standard gold, but perhaps the minute flash of yellow on the shoulders of the Germany kit might have been an issue?

In truth, they look more similar from a distance in their current get up – but what do I know.

Alexandra Popp is playing her final match today, and she is being honoured and recognised ahead of kick off.

There are lots of banners and signs.

Fittingly, this is also where she made her debut for the national team, in a 3-0 win over North Korea in 2010.

Marina Hegering is also hanging up her national team boots and she is out there too, although not in a playing capacity, as is Merle Frohms.

Tonight’s match is taking place at the MSV-Arena in Duisburg.

Duisburg, as I’m sure you all know, is in Germany’s far west, very close to the Dutch border.

It’s a decent enough ground, holding 31,500 people and was one of the venues the DFB had used to bid for the 2027 Women’s World Cup, which will be held in Brazil.

Its principle tenants have seen better days in truth — MSV Duisburg currently play in Germany’s fourth tier.

Here’s Tom Sermanni speaking to Paramount +.

“They’re in good spirits,” he says.

“Everyone came up good and healthy … we’re picking from a full squad.

“It’s important to focus and perform. It’s important for us to perform like an Australian national team, like Matildas.”

Milestone match for the 22-year-old Arsenal star tonight.

The Brisbane-born, Victoria-raised midfielder brings up her 50th Matildas appearance against Germany.

Germany come into this match off a frantic 4-3 victory at Wembley against reigning European Champions, England.

The Lionesses had beaten Germany in its last two meetings at Wembley, but the Frauenteam earned the win which gave new coach Christian Wuck a superb start to life in the national team’s top job.

Germany captain Giulia Gwinn scored twice inside the first 11 minutes, before Klara Buhl netted Germany’s third before the half hour mark as the visitors opened up a 3-0 lead.

Georgia Stanway single-handedly got the home side back in the game with a three-minute brace from the 33rd minute.

Sara Dabritz restored Germany’s two-goal cushion from the penalty spot in the 72nd minute, but England scored again nine minutes later Lucy Bronze slammed home off an error.

Tom Sermani said he had “mixed” feelings about how his site played against Switzerland on the weekend.

“I thought we were a little bit off the pace,” he said.

“I thought Switzerland were a little bit sharper than us, got the ball a little bit quicker, but in general we still looked fairly solid and safe.

“For big patches of the second half, we dominated possession of the game without creating a lot of chances.”

The Matildas took the lead through a Caitlin Foord penalty, but were pegged back by Geraldine Reuteler strike characterised by some woefully scrappy defending.

“We certainly need to step up [against Germany], based on tonight’s performance,” he said.

“But tonight was the first time with the team for a while. The Germany game, I think, will be an entirely different game.

“I think Germany will come out to play more open football, more attacking football, and that might actually give us a better chance to play and get the ball and get in possession.

“Hopefully the German game might be a little bit more open, which makes it a little bit more dangerous defensively, but it also may give us more opportunities attacking-wise.”

Get that coffee pot on, because it’s an early one.

We’re kicking off at 7:10pm local time over there in Germany, which means an eyewatering 4:10am AEDT (NSW, Victoria, Tasmania and ACT).

That means 4:40am in the Northern Territory, 3:10am in Queensland, 3:40am in Adelaide and 1:10am in WA.

Here’s how Die Frauen line up.

They have made significant changes too.

Veteran striker Alexandra Popp returns to skipper the side in what is her farewell 145th appearance, with 21-year-old Frankfurt midfielder Lisanne Gräwe, Felicitas Rauch, Selina Cerci and Vivien Endemann all coming in.

There’s a change in keeper too, with Ann-Katrin Berger out of the starting XI, replaced by Stina Johannes.

Here’s the starting XI for this morning’s match.

The Matildas have made a couple of changes to the side that drew 1-1 with Switzerland.

Courtney Nevin drops out of the starting line up, as does Tamika Yallop.

Their spots are taken by Clare Wheeler and Steph Catley, who captains the side.

Morning folks and welcome to the ABC Sport coverage of this ludicrously early Matildas match this morning.

My name is Simon Smale and I’ll be guiding you through all the action as it happens over in Europe over the next couple of hours.

The Matildas, who hardly shone agained 17th-ranked Switzerland on Saturday morning, will take on Olympic bronze medallists Germany on their home patch.

The last time that happened, it got seriously ugly for Australia, losing 5-2 in Wiesbaden — and in truth the Germans could have scored double that.

Then, there was a 3-0 thumping at the Olympics in Marseille.

Both those matches were under Tony Gustavsson. Can Tom Sermanni do any better?

Let’s find out.