Football
Stephan Uersfeld, Germany correspondent 8y

Germany to play Italy in November; planning match vs. England for 2017

The German FA (DFB) has confirmed a friendly against Italy on Nov. 15 while a source has told ESPN FC that the world champions will also take on England in a friendly at Borussia Dortmund's Westfalenstadion early in 2017.

The Italy game could be Lukas Podolski's final outing for the Germany national team after he announced his retirement earlier this summer, although that farewell could instead come against England next year.

A DFB statement released on Friday read: "Germany's year will end with a friendly against Italy on the 15th of November at the Giuseppe-Meazza stadium in Milan. The Italian FA today confirmed the venue for the game, which has always been a classic encounter."

The statement did not confirm any details of the reported fixture against England.

In March, Germany gave away a two-goal lead against England when the two nations met in a friendly at Berlin's Olympiastadion, and the Three Lions came out on top in a 3-2 win thanks to goals by Harry Kane, Jamie Vardy and Eric Dier.

Meanwhile, Germany's new captain, Manuel Neuer, has said that the team want to start their 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign with a perfect record in 2016.

The 2014 World Cup winners visit Norway on Sunday, and then host the Czech Republic and Northern Ireland in October before playing their final competitive match of the year in San Marino in mid-November.

"It will not be easy because we don't know the Norwegians that well," Neuer told a news conference on Friday. "But we'll learn a lot about them during our match preparation.

"But it's about us in that qualifying campaign. We weren't perfect in the qualifiers for Euro 2016, and we have to have another aspiration.

"We want to start with three points and want to win four games until December."

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