Germany have a habit of lulling England into a mood of false optimism. The national team have not lost on German soil since 1987, have won each of their last three games in the country and tend to fly home from the place convinced they are staring into a new dawn.

Gareth Southgate sees the pitfalls, too. He has started two games against Germany for England as a player and on both occasions saw the incumbent manager - Terry Venables in 1996 and Kevin Keegan four years later - leave the post because of the result. There was his own missed penalty in Euro ’96 which Southgate showed the players a video of this week – saved by none other than Andreas Kopke, who will be in the Germany dug-out as goalkeeping coach on Wednesday night.

The England manager won’t be looking him up. “If he is around,” he said. “If he’s got a pair of gloves on I’ll know who he is. With respect I’ve never looked at loads of pictures of it other than from the back of the goal. I don’t normally shake hands with the opposition goalkeeping coach…”

England vs Germany: The key numbers Show all 8 1 /8 England vs Germany: The key numbers England vs Germany: The key numbers The numbers you need to know England renew hostilities with old rivals Germany in Dortmund on Wednesday. Here are the key numbers from one of international football's most eagerly-anticipated fixtures. AFP/Getty England vs Germany: The key numbers 30 Previous meetings between the sides. Germany lead by 14 wins to 13, with three draws. Getty England vs Germany: The key numbers 2 Germany's win tally includes two in penalty shoot-outs, at the 1990 World Cup and Euro 96. Bongarts/Getty England vs Germany: The key numbers 30 Years since the last home win in the fixture, 3-1 to the then West Germany team in Dusseldorf in 1987. Of the 12 meetings since, four have come in major tournaments in neutral countries and the other eight, including at Euro 96 on English soil, have been won by the visitors. AFP/Getty Images England vs Germany: The key numbers 23 Goals in the last six meetings, with each featuring at least three goals apart from Germany's 1-0 win at Wembley in 2013. Getty Images England vs Germany: The key numbers 9 The most goals scored in a match between the two teams, all the way back in 1938 when England won 6-3 in Berlin. Getty Images England vs Germany: The key numbers 4 The biggest winning margin in the fixture, in England's memorable 5-1 success in Munich in 2001. England vs Germany: The key numbers 3 The top scorers in the fixture have three goals apiece, in each case after scoring hat-tricks - England's Michael Owen in that 2001 game and Sir Geoff Hurst in the 1966 World Cup final, and Richard Hofmann for Germany in the first ever meeting in 1930.

But the 2000 match he played in for Keegan, at the old Wembley, was in some ways worse because the torture lasted longer. Keegan fielded Southgate as a sweeper-cum-holding midfielder that October day – a position he not filled since his early days at Crystal Palace – and there were a collective national gasp. The notion was so ridiculed on the ‘Hold the Back Page’ TV show, the night before the game, that Keegan – watching on television – instructed FA director David Davies to ring in and demand the transmission be cut. England lost and Keegan quit in the toilet, in what the Independent’s writer dubbed ‘the day of the S.’ “That is, S for Southgate’s selection, S for soaked, S for sad and, ultimately, S for so long.”

The 1996 experience was clearly the most searing - “something which helped shaped me as a person, builds your mental strength, gives you – years down the line – that feeling that actually ‘what is there to fear in life,’” as Southgate put it on Tuesday night. “I’ve been through the worst that I could so I think that gives me freedom when I’m managing players to allow them to go and express themselves.”