Northern Ireland v Germany, 21 June 2016

Kick-off: 6.00pm (5.00pm local). Assistant referees: Frédéric Cano (France) Nicolas Danos (France) Fourth official: Slavko Vinčić (Slovenia) Additional assistant referees: Benoît Bastien (France) Fredy Fautrel (France) Reserve assistant referee: Robert Vukan (Slovenia) Man of the Match: Mesut Özil (Germany) Germany intended to win this tie by a large enough margin to win the group whilst, with Northern Ireland already guaranteed third place, every goal, for or against, could be vital in whether they qualified or not. Thomas Muller was put through on goal on seven minutes, but Michael McGovern saved well. Mesut Ozil had a great chance on 11 in the box, but fluffed his shot. A minute later, McGovern saved from Mario Gotze before, on 23 minutes, Muller fired wide again. Northern Ireland chances were few and far between but Jamie Ward had an effort from distance before a Muller header hit the post. On the half-hour mark, Ozil, Muller and Gomez combined well and Gomez finally put the ball into the back of the Northern Ireland net. Four minutes later Muller hit the woodwork again and Northern Ireland clearly have a struggle to minimise the damage to their goal difference. On 41 minutes, Gomez really should have scored another but scuffed his shot. McGovern made another great save from Gotze early in the second half, reinforcing a strong claim to man of the match. The German chances kept coming, less frequently than in the first half but into the last ten minutes McGovern made another fine save from a Gomez header. Northern Ireland had to wait and see if they went through to the knock-out stage. The narrow defeat duly proved to be significant. Germany won the group on goal difference.