Germany announce final pre-World Cup friendly against Saudi Arabia | OneFootball

Germany will face Saudi Arabia in their final tune-up before the 2018 World Cup, the DFB announced on Friday.

A match against Austria had already been scheduled for June 2 and the game against the Saudis, who have also qualified for Russia, will take place on June 8.

The friendly will be played in Leverkusen.

The two sides have met twice before — once for an exhibition in 1998 and then famously in the 2002 World Cup, when Germany ran out 8-0 winners in the most lopsided result in the competition’s history.

Despite the imbalanced historical record, Joachim Löw is pleased to be facing the Gulf side.

“The match against Austria is a good test against a European side, which fits well into our preparation for the World Cup from a sporting and organisational perspective,” he said.

“We will come up against a different playing style and mentality with Saudi Arabia, one that we won’t be too familiar with and will have to prepare for going into the World Cup.

“I expect Saudi Arabia to take the game very seriously and they certainly won’t give us an easy ride, particularly as they will be looking to go into their World Cup opener against Russia a few days later full of confidence.”

Germany will face Mexico, Sweden and South Korea in a potentially tricky World Cup group.

Their first match is against Mexico on June 17.