This will be Germany and Côte d‘Ivoire’s first FIFA World Cup meeting. Their only previous encounter came in a November 2009 friendly in Gelsenkirchen – it ended 2-2 with a brace from Lukas Podolski and strikes from Emmanuel Eboué and Seydou Doumbia.

Germany have lost only one of their eight FIFA World Cup matches against African opposition (W5 D2) – it came against Algeria in 1982 (1-2).