Germany hope to complete Portugal hat-trick

Germany are on a two-game winning streak against opening UEFA EURO 2012 opponents Portugal, but they will not expect to have it easy against the side who inflicted their heaviest EURO finals defeat.

Head-to-head record
• The teams are meeting for the 17th time. In their previous contests, Germany's record is W8 D5 L3.

• Their three past UEFA European Championship matches produced a win each and a draw. Overall Germany hold a slight advantage in final tournament encounters, with two wins, one draw and one defeat.

• The sides first met in a 27 February 1936 friendly in Lisbon, Germany winning 3-1. Portugal lost four of their first five meetings before breaking their duck against West Germany on 23 February 1983, with Dito securing a 1-0 success in Lisbon.

• Portugal also played three games against East Germany before German reunification, winning two and losing the other.

Selected previous meetings
19 June 2008: Portugal 2-3 Germany (Nuno Gomes 40, Hélder Postiga 87; Schweinsteiger 22, Klose 26, Ballack 61) – St. Jakob-Park, Basel, UEFA EURO 2008 quarter-finals
Portugal: Ricardo, José Bosingwa, Pepe, Ricardo Carvalho, Paulo Ferreira, João Moutinho (Raul Meireles 31), Petit (Hélder Postiga 73), Deco, Simão, Cristiano Ronaldo, Nuno Gomes (Nani 67).
Germany: Lehmann, Friedrich, Mertesacker, Metzelder, Lahm, Hitzlsperger (Borowski 73), Rolfes, Schweinsteiger (Fritz 83), Ballack, Podolski, Klose (Jansen 89).

• In their most recent encounter a Germany side led by Hans-Dieter Flick – in the absence of the suspended Joachim Löw – beat Luiz Felipe Scolari's Portugal en route to a 1-0 final defeat by Spain.

8 July 2006: Germany 3-1 Portugal (Schweinsteiger 56 78, Petit og 61; Nuno Gomes 88) – VfB Arena, Stuttgart, 2006 FIFA World Cup third-place play-off
Germany: Kahn, Lahm, Nowotny, Metzelder, Jansen, Schneider, Kehl, Frings, Schweinsteiger (Hitzlsperger 79), Klose (Neuville 65), Podolski (Hanke 71).
Portugal: Ricardo, Paulo Ferreira, Ricardo Costa, Fernando Meira, Nuno Valente (Nuno Gomes 69), Costinha (Petit 46), Maniche, Deco, Simão, Pauleta (Luís Figo 77), Cristiano Ronaldo.

• Two years earlier, Jürgen Klinsmann's Germany had overcome Scolari's side to take the bronze medal at the FIFA World Cup finals on home soil. The 2006 fixture marked Luís Figo's 127th and last cap, Portugal's record appearance maker setting up Nuno Gomes' goal with his final touch in international football.

20 June 2000: Portugal 3-0 Germany (Sérgio Conceição 35 54 71) – De Kuip, Rotterdam, UEFA EURO 2000 group stage
Portugal: Pedro Espinha (Quim 90), Beto, Fernando Couto, Jorge Costa, Rui Jorge, Sérgio Conceição, Costinha, Paulo Sousa (Vidigal 67), Capucho, Sá Pinto, Pauleta (Nuno Gomes 72).
Germany: Kahn, Nowotny, Matthäus, Linke, Rehmer, Ballack (Rink 46), Scholl (Hässler 60), Hamann, Deisler, Jancker (Kirsten 69), Bode.

• Sérgio Conceição's hat-trick meant that Humberto Coelho's Portugal eliminated Erich Ribbeck's Germany at the group stage. It remains Germany's worst ever result at a UEFA European Championship final tournament and left them bottom of the group. Portugal went on to lose 2-1 to France in the semi-finals.

14 June 1984: Germany 0-0 Portugal – La Meinau, Strasbourg, 1984 UEFA European Championship group stage
West Germany: Schumacher, B Förster, Stielike, K Förster, Briegel, Rolff (Bommer 67), Buchwald (Matthäus 67), Rummenigge, Brehme, Völler, Allofs.
Portugal: Bento, João Pinto, Lima Pereira, Eurico Gomes, Álvaro Magalhães, Carlos Manuel, António Sousa, Frasco (Veloso 79), Chalana, Jaime Pacheco, Rui Jordão (Fernando Gomes 85).

• Jupp Derwall's West Germany and Fernando Cabrita's Portugal drew 0-0 in Strasbourg in their only other major finals meeting. It was Portugal's first game at a EURO final tournament.

Form guide
• Germany and Spain were the only teams to come through qualifying without dropping a point, though Germany played ten games to Spain's eight. Löw's side have not lost a competitive fixture since succumbing 1-0 against Spain in the 2010 World Cup semi-final.

• Löw's side won the subsequent third-place play-off game 3-2 against Uruguay in Port Elizabeth, meaning they are now on a run of 11 straight competitive wins.

• Portugal have scored 16 goals in their last five competitive outings – three wins, a draw and a defeat – including six in their most recent fixture, a 6-2 play-off win against Bosnia and Herzegovina.

• Portugal's only previous game in Ukraine ended in a 2-1 World Cup qualifying defeat by the home side in Kyiv on 5 October 1996.

• Germany have drawn all three of their previous matches in Ukraine: two World Cup games – 0-0 on 7 June 1997, 1-1 on 10 November 2002 – and a friendly on 11 November 2011, which finished 3-3. All three games were staged in Kyiv.

Team ties
• Portugal's Pepe, Fábio Coentrão and Cristiano Ronaldo play alongside Germany's Sami Khedira and Mesut Özil at Real Madrid CF.

• All five players appeared as Madrid lost to FC Bayern München in the 2011/12 UEFA Champions League semi-finals, Coentrão featuring only in Bayern's 2-1 first-leg win in Germany. Manuel Neuer, Jérôme Boateng, Philipp Lahm, Holger Badstuber, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Toni Kroos, Thomas Müller and Mario Gomez played both games, Gomez scoring Bayern's first-leg winner. Ronaldo struck twice in the Madrid return but was denied by Neuer in the penalty shoot-ou; Kroos and Lahm also missed for Bayern, but Gomez scored and Schweinsteiger's kick sent them into the final.

• Raul Meireles and Badstuber were suspended for Chelsea FC's penalty shoot-out win against Bayern in May's UEFA Champions League final in Munich; Neuer, Lahm, Boateng, Schweinsteiger, Kroos, Müller and Gomez were all in the beaten Bayern team.

• Ricardo Costa played in Germany for VfL Wolfsburg from 2007 to 2010 and was an unused substitute in FC Porto's 2004 UEFA Champions League final win against AS Monaco FC in Gelsenkirchen's Arena AufSchalke.

• Hugo Almeida represented SV Werder Bremen from 2006 to 2010, winning the 2008/09 German Cup and but losing that year's UEFA Cup final against Ukrainian side FC Shakhtar Donetsk. Özil, Per Mertesacker and Tim Wiese were among his team-mates.

• Portugal coach Paulo Bento was in charge of Sporting Clube de Portugal when they were beaten by Bayern in the 2008/09 UEFA Champions League round of 16. Sporting's 5-0 first-leg defeat was their worst ever home result, and things only got worse as they lost the return fixture 7-1. João Moutinho scored Sporting's goal with German internationals Lukas Podolski (2), Miroslav Klose (2), Schweinsteiger (1) and Müller (1) on target for Bayern in the tie.

• Nani also suffered a notable disappointment against Bayern; he scored twice in Manchester United FC's 3-2 home win against the Bavarian club in the 2009/10 UEFA Champions League quarter-finals, but the visitors went through on away goals, having won the first leg 2-1.

• Moutinho scored an added-time winner as Portugal beat Germany 1-0 in the 2006 UEFA European Under-21 Championship group stage in Portugal. Rolando, Meireles, Ricardo Quaresma, Custódio, Silvestre Varela and Nani also played.

• Almeida scored the opening goal past Wiese as Portugal beat Germany 2-1 in the 2004 European U21 Championship group stage, Schweinsteiger scoring Germany's goal. Bruno Alves, João Pereira and Meireles also played for Portugal with Beto, Custódio and Hugo Viana unused substitutes; Podolski featured for Germany.