France and Germany vie for supremacy

France and Germany will play for the Group A leadership, and possibly a semi-final place, in Guimaraes on Thursday after both opened their accounts with a victory on Tuesday. Les Bleuets stunned hosts Portugal 1-0 in Braga and Germany defeated Serbia and Montenegro by the same scoreline in the tournament curtain-raiser in Barcelos.

• Despite being perennial UEFA European Under-21 Championship finalists, the teams' Matchday 2 meeting will be only their third at this level following a two-legged tussle in the quarter-finals of the 1996 edition. The first match in Osnabruck ended goalless, with several future senior internationals on both sides unable to fashion a breakthrough. The return, at the Stade Saint-Symphorien in Longueville-les-Metz, proved a completely different story as Robert Pirès scored twice for France in a five-minute spell around the half-hour before Florian Maurice added a third shortly before half-time. Maurice struck again with 20 minutes remaining and, although Christian Nerlinger grabbed a consolation seven minutes later, France advanced in style only to fall to eventual winners Italy in the last four.

• The emphatic margin of victory was something of an anomaly, however, as contests between the countries in youth competition have invariably been close affairs. France prevailed on penalties in the UEFA European U17 Championship quarter-finals in 2002 after a 1-1 draw, but succumbed to Switzerland by the same means in the final, while a goalless draw followed in the qualifying round of the 2002/03 tournament. The French also prevailed in the most recent encounter, by a 3-2 scoreline in the semi-finals of last year's U19 event, and went on to beat England 3-1 in the final.

• Germany have held the upper hand at senior level, although Les Bleus did win the sides' first FIFA World Cup encounter 6-3 in the third-placed play-off of 1958, Just Fontaine scoring four to take his finals tally to 13, still a record. The boot was on the other foot in 1982 and 1986 when West Germany took on France in the last four, with the Germans recovering from 3-1 down in the first match to prevail 5-4 on penalties before triumphing 2-0 in the next edition's semi-final. On each occasion they were overcome in the final, by Italy and Argentina respectively.