Rio de Janeiro, July 2: France will take on Germany in the first quarter-final of the 2014 Fifa World Cup at the Estadio Maracana here on July 5. While France have won the title once (1998), Germany have bagged the crown thrice (1954, 1974 and 1990).

Both teams have remained undefeated in this World Cup so far and finished with seven points to lead their respective groups.

FIFA WORLD RANKINGS: GERMANY 2, FRANCE 17

Germany began their journey in this edition with a 4-0 thrashing of Portugal, drew with Ghana 2-2 after trailing at one stage and beat the USA 1-0 in their last match in the group. In the Round of 16, the Germans tamed a spirited Algeria 2-1 in the extra time to make their ninth successive quarter finals.

France, on the other hand, beat Honduras 3-0 in their opening campaign and followed it with a 5-2 drubbing of Switzerland after going 5-0 up at one stage and drew 0-0 with Ecuador. France beat Nigeria, another African team to have made the last 16, in their pre-quarterfinal game by two goals to nil.

The performance of the Germans, however, went down by a few notches as the tournament progressed. After the Blitzkrieg against Portugal, it took a lot of effort from the former world champions to get past the USA and Algeria in their last two games. Former German players have criticized the performance and asked them to tighten things in the game against France.

Thomas Muller with four goals have remained the Germans' main hope while Mats Hummels who scored against Portugal is a doubtful starter against the French. The injuries of Shkodran Mustafi and Bastian Schweinsteiger will also make Coach Joachim Low a worried man.

France, although, have no injury worries but Karim Benzema's showing after the first two games have not been impressive. Benzema scored three goals in the first two games while he missed a penalty against the Swiss. France have displayed a high quality called patience in their games by playing the better football in the second halves of their games. The coach in the former World Cup-winning captain Didier Deschamps has helped France's transformation at the highest level.

France and Germany (West Germany earlier) have met thrice in the World cup finals with the latter winning in two games. France had won the 1958 encounter 6-3 while the Germans won the 1982 and 1986 editions by the scoreline of 5-4(penalties) and 2-0, respectively.

The first quarter-final between the two titans of European football have all the ingredients to be a cracking affair. The winners of this game will meet the winners of Brazil-Columbia game in the semi-finals.

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