Germany v Mexico, 17 June 2018

Kick-off: 6.00pm local Germany v Mexico was Match 11 of the FIFA World Cup 2018 Refereeing team: Referee: Alireza Faghani (Iran) Assistant Referee 1: Reza Sokhandan (Iran) Assistant Referee 2: Mohammadreza Mansouri (Iran) Fourth Official: Mohammed Abdulla (United Arab Emirates) Reserve AR: Mohamed Al-Hammadi (United Arab Emirates) VAR: Massimilliano Irrati (Italy) Mexico had only previously beaten Germany once and that was a friendly in 1985. This was only the second time that Germany had lost their opening match at a World Cup finals; also in 1982 against Algeria when they went on to reach the Final. This was the third consecutive World Cup finals were the holders had failed to win their opening game; Italy drew 1-1 with Paraguay in 2010 and Spain lost 5-1 against Netherlands in 2014. Mexico's Rafael Marquez appeared in his record-equalling fifth World Cup finals (2002, 2006, 2010, 2014 and 2018) along with fellow Mexican Antonio Carbajal (1950, 1954, 1958, 1962 and 1966) and Germany's Lothar Matthaus (1982, 1986, 1990, 1994 and 1998).