With national team player Addo
©IMAGO
Julian Nagelsmann’s quartet of test opponents for the 2026 World Cup is complete. The national team will play against Ghana on March 30th (8:45 p.m.) in Stuttgart. The German Football Association announced this on Monday. Coach Otto Addo’s team replaces Ivory Coast.
The African champion, who was still in power for around four weeks, was drawn as a World Cup group opponent alongside Curaçao and Ecuador for the DFB selection and is therefore out of the tournament preliminary round. Ghana is also a World Cup participant and plays in a group with England, Croatia and Panama.
DFB coach Nagelsmann is hoping for World Cup insights against Ghana
“We are really looking forward to the duel with Otto’s team. Their strong transition game can give us a foretaste of the World Cup group duel with Ivory Coast,” said Nagelsmann about the game against Hamburg-born Addo’s team. Before the Ghana duel, Nagelsmann and the national team start the World Cup year with a test in Basel against Switzerland on March 27th (8:45 p.m.). The other opponents before the final round are Finland in Mainz on May 31st (8:45 p.m.) and the USA in Chicago on June 6th (8:30 p.m.).
Germany has played against Ghana three times so far. Most recently there was a 2-2 draw in the group stage on the way to the 2014 World Cup title in Brazil. At the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, Mesut Özil scored the DFB team 1-0 and thus into the round of 16. There was also a 6-1 win in a friendly in 1993. Former Bundesliga professional Addo took over as Ghana’s national coach again in the summer of 2024.
With the fourth test opponent, Nagelsmann’s World Cup plans are well advanced. The World Cup quarters that the national team will move into the day after the USA test on June 7th have not yet been announced. A week later, on June 14th (7 p.m.), the World Cup opens in Houston against Curaçao. The second group game in Toronto against Ivory Coast follows on June 20th (10 p.m.). The preliminary round will take place on June 25th (10 p.m.) in the final stadium in East Rutherford near New York against Ecuador.
