Group G’s opening encounter at the Arena Fonte Nova will be a tense one, with two heavyweight teams punching it out in what is sure to be a festival of skills, passing, shooting and most importantly, goals. Paulo Bento, the Portugal coach finds himself in quite possibly the luckiest situation of any of the 32 managers at the tournament as he has at his disposal some of the greatest names in world football, and they are all declared fit  and healthy ahead of this evening’s game. There isn’t a player in any position that any team in the world wouldn’t welcome into the fold, with a drool-worthy line-up of Cristiano Ronaldo, Almeida, Nani, Moutinho, Meireles, Veloso, Coentrao, Pereira, Pepe, Alves and Patricio all looking to get a start this evening.

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Strangely though, the Portuguese have only won one of their last seven games in the this tournament – a thumping 7-0 thrashing of the hapless Japan, which was then followed by three draws and three losses. History is on the side of Die Mannschaft in this fixture however, having won nine and drawn five. With Ghana and the United States lying in wait for the Germans after this fixture, they are understandably anxious to get this, the toughest game in their group, out of the way, with no-one really expecting any massive surprises and everyone expecting these two giants to top their group.

On the German team sheet is also a lineup to make any avid football fan blink, with keeper Neuer, a back four of Boateng, Hummels, Mertesacker and Lahm, a midfield of Schweinsteiger and Khedira, Ozil “in the hole” and a front trio of Podolski, Muller and Klose. A pretty strong lineup with perhaps one weakness that the Portuguese will be trying to exploit. The german coach, Joachim Low has admitted that left back is a little bit of an issue, with Boateng and co. letting in a few too many goals recently. The key players for Germany tonight will be Podolski and Lahm, with Joachim  Low cited as saying that the latter is the “most intelligent player I’ve ever worked with”.

On the Portuguese side of things there is Cristiano Ronaldo, who is currently in the form of his life and is recognised as one of the top three players in world football at the moment along with Messrs Messi and Suarez. Germany are scoring for fun at the moment having banged in thirty six goals in ten matches, an astonishing 3.6 goals per game on average and having reached the finals seven times, they will really feel like the wind is at their backs this evening. The Portuguese cannot be  written off however, with the squad they have looking delicious on paper.

One to watch  for the Portuguese this evening will be one William Carvalho of Sporting Lisbon fame, having had a wonderful first season there, and with many of the world’s top clubs interested in him, not least Manchester United. A tricky, tough encounter this evening, but one that should provide some sizzling, electric football.

Odds Comparison:

Germany	2.00	2.00	1.83	2.00	2.00	1.91
Draw	3.60	3.50	3.65	3.50	3.60	3.50
Portugal	4.00	3.75	4.00	3.75	4.00	3.75

All odds are subject to change. Odds listed are correct at the time of the latest update