Schweinsteiger can become Germany's record caps holder at EUROs

Record goalscorers: Germany’s all-time goalscor charts are topped by Miroslav Klose, who netted 71 times, three more than Gerd Müller (68). However, Der Bomber only needed 62 caps for his tally, while Klose had notched 137 appearances when he retired from international football. Lukas Podolski (48), Thomas Müller (32) and Mario Gomez (27) are the top scorers in the current squad.

Record players: Still leading the way with this record is Lothar Matthäus. The former World Footballer of the Year won 150 caps for Germany between 1980 and 2000. Of the still active players, Lukas Podolski is next in the list with 128 appearances, followed by captain Bastian Schweinsteiger who has featured for Die Mannschaft 116 times.

EURO debutants: For ten of the 23 players in Löw’s squad, it will be the first European Championship of their career. For goalkeepers Bernd Leno and Marc-André ter Stegen, defenders Emre Can, Jonas Hector, Shkodran Mustafi and Jonathan Tah, as well as midfielders Julian Draxler, Joshua Kimmich, Julian Weigl and Leroy Sané, it is their first time in a EURO squad. Schalke’s captain Benedikt Höwedes was indeed called up to Löw’s squad four years ago in Poland and Ukraine, but he did not make an appearance. That soon changed – as for Draxler, Hector and Mustafi – when he played in Germany’s opener on Sunday.

First goal: Shkodran Mustafi scored his first international goal against Ukraine, becoming the 34th German goalscorer at a European Championship – more than any other team. Germany’s last ten goals have been scored by ten different goal scorers.

Record coach at EUROs: Joachim Löw became the all-time record holder during the match against Ukraine (12), overtaking with Berti Vogts on eleven games. The World Cup winning coach also has a better points per game average with 2.18 (Vogts: 1.91). However, Vogts won the 1996 European Championship in England - a title the Löw is yet to secure. Germany have never drawn at the EUROs under Löw (9 wins, 3 defeats).

EUROs top goalscorer: Former Germany coach Jürgen Klinsmann leads Germany’s EUROs all-time goalscorer charts with five goals in 13 games. However, just like Lahm’s milestone, “Klinsi” is also under threat of being overtaken. The candidates to beat the 1990 world champion and 1996 European champion’s successor are, among others, Podolski with four goals and Gomez with three. The French lead in this area too: former UEFA president Michel Platini scored nine goals to grab the record – all at EURO 1984. Schweinsteiger’s goal against Ukraine was the first scored by a substitute for Germany since Oliver Bierhoff’s brace in the 1996 final against Czech Republic.

EUROs record caps holder: Bastian Schweinsteiger’s brief appearances against Ukraine drew him level with World Cup winning captain Philipp Lahm, who made 14 appearances at European Championships. Both Lukas Podolski (11) and Mario Gomez (9) have the chance to level or overtake Lahm in France. French defender Lilian Thuram and Dutch goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar (both between 1996-2008) share the record with 16 appearances each.

Following the successful opener against Ukraine, in which Joachim Löw’s side won 2-0 in Lille last Sunday, the Germany national team can secure qualification with a win against Poland on Thursday (21:00 CEST) in Saint-Denis. DFB.de takes a look at all the important facts and figures ahead of the clash at the Stade de France.

Following the successful opener against Ukraine, in which Joachim Löw’s side won 2-0 in Lille last Sunday, the Germany national team can secure qualification with a win against Poland on Thursday (21:00 CEST) in Saint-Denis. DFB.de takes a look at all the important facts and figures ahead of the clash at the Stade de France.

EUROs record caps holder: Bastian Schweinsteiger’s brief appearances against Ukraine drew him level with World Cup winning captain Philipp Lahm, who made 14 appearances at European Championships. Both Lukas Podolski (11) and Mario Gomez (9) have the chance to level or overtake Lahm in France. French defender Lilian Thuram and Dutch goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar (both between 1996-2008) share the record with 16 appearances each.

EUROs top goalscorer: Former Germany coach Jürgen Klinsmann leads Germany’s EUROs all-time goalscorer charts with five goals in 13 games. However, just like Lahm’s milestone, “Klinsi” is also under threat of being overtaken. The candidates to beat the 1990 world champion and 1996 European champion’s successor are, among others, Podolski with four goals and Gomez with three. The French lead in this area too: former UEFA president Michel Platini scored nine goals to grab the record – all at EURO 1984. Schweinsteiger’s goal against Ukraine was the first scored by a substitute for Germany since Oliver Bierhoff’s brace in the 1996 final against Czech Republic.

Record coach at EUROs: Joachim Löw became the all-time record holder during the match against Ukraine (12), overtaking with Berti Vogts on eleven games. The World Cup winning coach also has a better points per game average with 2.18 (Vogts: 1.91). However, Vogts won the 1996 European Championship in England - a title the Löw is yet to secure. Germany have never drawn at the EUROs under Löw (9 wins, 3 defeats).

First goal: Shkodran Mustafi scored his first international goal against Ukraine, becoming the 34th German goalscorer at a European Championship – more than any other team. Germany’s last ten goals have been scored by ten different goal scorers.

EURO debutants: For ten of the 23 players in Löw’s squad, it will be the first European Championship of their career. For goalkeepers Bernd Leno and Marc-André ter Stegen, defenders Emre Can, Jonas Hector, Shkodran Mustafi and Jonathan Tah, as well as midfielders Julian Draxler, Joshua Kimmich, Julian Weigl and Leroy Sané, it is their first time in a EURO squad. Schalke’s captain Benedikt Höwedes was indeed called up to Löw’s squad four years ago in Poland and Ukraine, but he did not make an appearance. That soon changed – as for Draxler, Hector and Mustafi – when he played in Germany’s opener on Sunday.

Record players: Still leading the way with this record is Lothar Matthäus. The former World Footballer of the Year won 150 caps for Germany between 1980 and 2000. Of the still active players, Lukas Podolski is next in the list with 128 appearances, followed by captain Bastian Schweinsteiger who has featured for Die Mannschaft 116 times.

Record goalscorers: Germany’s all-time goalscor charts are topped by Miroslav Klose, who netted 71 times, three more than Gerd Müller (68). However, Der Bomber only needed 62 caps for his tally, while Klose had notched 137 appearances when he retired from international football. Lukas Podolski (48), Thomas Müller (32) and Mario Gomez (27) are the top scorers in the current squad.

All-time EUROs table: Germany are ahead of title-holders Spain in the all-time EURO table. They have played 44 games across eleven tournaments, with a record of 24 victories, ten draws and ten defeats. They have scored 67 and conceded 45 goals. Germany have won the European Championship three times: 1972 in Belgium, 1980 in Italy and 1996 in England. The Spaniards lie in second place with nine tournaments to their name (36 matches: W17, D11, L8; 50:32) and also three titles (1964, 2008, 2012).

Record I: Thursday’s game will be Germany’s 913th international fixture. The record since the opening 5-3 loss to Switzerland on 5th April 1908 includes 530 wins, 183 draws and 199 losses, in which Die Mannschaft have scored 2,048 goals and conceded 1,085. 923 different players have been capped in that time, with Julian Brandt, Joshua Kimmich, Bernd Leno and Julian Weigl the most recent debutants in the 3-1 defeat to Slovakia.

Record II: The clash against Ukraine will be Joachim Löw’s 133rd in the dugout. Germany have won 88 games since he took charge in August 2006, drawing 22 and losing 22. The manager has used 107 different players in those games and has handed 82 Germans their senior international debut.

Record III: Poland have won just one of 20 international fixtures against Germany (6 draws, 13 defeats). The lone victory came during the qualifiers for EURO 2016 (2-0 in Warsaw) – only Finland (22 matches) have played Germany more and lost so many games. The most recent meeting between the two sides came on 4th September 2015 when Mario Götze and Thomas Müller fired Germany to a 3-1 win in Frankfurt. The two sides have met four times at a major tournament, with Germany winning three and drawing one: two 1-0 wins at the 1974 and 2006 World Cups, as well as a goalless draw in 1978. The only previous encounter at a European Championship was in 2008, when a Lukas Podolski brace helped Germany to a 2-0 win.

Record IV: The first meeting between the two sides came on 3rd December 1993 at the Berliner Poststadion – Germany won 1-0. The highest win for the Germans was a 5-2 friendly win in Warsaw on 9th September 1934. 1954 World Cup winning manager Sepp Herberger made his debut as Germany manager in the 1-1 draw in Warsaw on 13th September 1936. The GDR also won gold at the 1976 Montreal Olympics after beating Poland 3-1.

The matchday: Exactly 34 years ago on Thursday, Germany lost the opening match at the World Cup 2-1 against Algeria – Karl-Heinz-Rummenigge scoring the only goal for Germany in Gijon. 20 years ago, Die Mannschaft beat Russia 3-0 at Old Trafford on the way to lifting the trophy. Exactly eight years ago the national team beat Austria 1-0, courtesy of a stunning free kick from Michael Ballack, in their third group stage match. At the 2014 World Cup, Germany also celebrated a 4-0 win in their opening match against Portugal, with Thomas Müller scoring a hattrick.

Stadium: The Stade de France in Saint-Denis, with a capacity of 80,000, is France’s national stadium and was built for the 1998 World Cup. Both the French national football and rugby teams play their home matches there. Memorable matches at the Stade de France include France’s 3-0 win over Brazil during the 1998 World Cup final, Champions League finals in 2000 (Real Madrid 3-0 Valencia) and 2006 (Barcelona 2-1 Arsenal). Germany have played there four times: winning one, drawing twice and losing once, though they were all friendlies. The most recent encounter came in France’s 2-0 win on 13th November 2015; however, the match was overshadowed by the tragic terror attacks that rocked the city that night.

The opponents I: Poland are taking part in their third consecutive European Championship since 2008. They have never made it out of the group, indeed they hadn’t won a game until their victory over Northern Ireland in the first group stage match. They were the most dangerous team in the qualifiers, scoring 33 goals in their 10 matches – 13 of which were scored by Robert Lewandowski alone. Arkadiusz Milik also provided the joint most assists of any player at the tournament (6), along with Israel’s Eran Zahavi and Slovakia’s Vladimir Weiss. The eastern European side finished second behind Germany in their qualifying group ahead of Ireland, Scotland, Georgia and Gibraltar. Their greatest international success was coming third at the 1974 and 1982 World Cups, though they failed to qualify for either of the last two tournaments in South Africa and Brazil. The Polish team won gold at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, as well as silver at in Montreal (1976) and Barcelona (1982). The most capped player in Polish history is Michal Zewlakow (1999 to 2011) who made 102 appearances, while Wlodzimierz Lubanski (1963-1980) is the country’s top scorer with 48 goals in 75 games.

The opponents II: Poland’s biggest ever win came in the 10-0 thrashing of San Marino on 1st April 2009, while their biggest defeat was an 8-0 loss against Denmark on 26th June 1948. Since 2013, Poland have climbed from 76th to 27th in the FIFA international rankings. Germany are currently ranked fourth.

The opponents III: Poland celebrated their first ever win at a European Championship after beating Northern Ireland 1-0 on Sunday and also kept their first ever clean sheet. In seven matches at the EUROs, they have scored just four goals and never more than one in a single game.

The manager: Adam Nawalka, capped 34 times for the national team, was part of the 1978 World Cup team that beat Argentina in the third-placed play-off. He took over management of the national team in 2013 and oversaw their first ever win against Germany in October 2014.

Poles in Germany: Lukasz Piszczek has been playing in Germany since 2007, making 223 Bundesliga appearances for Hertha BSC and Borussia Dortmund (12 goals). He was a Bundesliga champion with BVB in 2011 and 2012, as well a DFB Cup winner in 2012. Start striker Robert Lewandowksi has been active in the Bundesliga since 2010 and has enjoyed plenty of success since. Champion in 2011 and double winner in 2012 with BVB, he then switched to Bayern in 2014, where he won the league again in his first season and celebrated the double in 2016. Lewandowski was also the Bundesliga’s top scorer in 2014 and again in 2016, when he set a new record for the most goals scored by a foreign player (30). In Jakub Blaszczykowski (on loan at Fiorentina from Dortmund), Arkadiusz Milik (Leverkusen, Augsburg), Slawomir Peszko (Köln) and Mariusz Stepinski (Nürnberg), there are several other Polish internationals with experience in Germany.

Teammates: Lukasz Piszczek played alongside Mats Hummels and Julian Weigl at BVB. Robert Lewandowksi also knows Bayern teammates Manuel Neuer, Thomas Müller, Mario Götze, Jerome Boateng and Joshua Kimmich, as well as former BVB colleague Hummels very well. Hummels and Götze also played together with Jakub Blasczykowski at Dortmund, while Wojciech Szczesny and Lukasz Fabianski come up against Mesut Özil and Lukas Podolski who they know from Arsenal. Podolski and Jonas Hector reunite with former Köln teammate Slawomir Peszko. Bartosz Salomon played with Shkodran Mustafi at Sampdoria (2013-14) and Arkadiusz Milik lined-up alongside Bernd Leno and Emre Can at Bayer Leverkusen in the 2013/14 season.

Referee: The match in Paris will be officiated by Dutch referee Björn Kuipers. Kuipers oversaw two matches at EURO 2012, as well as three at the 2014 World Cup. The highlight of his career came two years ago when he refereed the Champions League final in Lisbon between city rivals Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid.