WC 2026 · Forecasting Oxford Football Forecasting
🇩🇪

Germany

UEFA Group E
3.9% Champion probability ±0.06 MC-SE
Coach
Julian Nagelsmann home · German
Elo (model)
1,932 world 10th
Squad value
€1114M
Power → Reality
9th 9th −0.01 pp · neutral draw

Fig. D1 Fixture-aware · 100k sims

Germany — stage progression

Round of 32: 98.10% (95% MC 98.01%–98.18%; MC-SE ±0.04 pts) Round of 32 reach 98.1% ±0.04 Round of 16: 62.48% (95% MC 62.18%–62.78%; MC-SE ±0.15 pts) Round of 16 reach 62.5% ±0.15 Quarter-final: 32.83% (95% MC 32.54%–33.12%; MC-SE ±0.15 pts) Quarter-final reach 32.8% ±0.15 Semi-final: 18.02% (95% MC 17.78%–18.25%; MC-SE ±0.12 pts) Semi-final reach 18.0% ±0.12 Final: 8.65% (95% MC 8.48%–8.83%; MC-SE ±0.09 pts) Final reach 8.7% ±0.09 Champion: 3.89% (95% MC 3.77%–4.01%; MC-SE ±0.06 pts) Champion reach 3.9% ±0.06

On the central forecast, Germany more likely than not reaches the Round of 16 (62%). Champion probability is 3.9% ± 0.06 pts.

Source · Oxford Football Forecasting model
Group E Confed Advance (top 2) Reach R32
1🇩🇪GermanyUEFA62.5%98.1%
2🇪🇨EcuadorCONMEBOL50.7%93.3%
3🇨🇮Côte d'IvoireCAF31.8%80.2%
4🇨🇼CuraçaoCONCACAF0.4%5.2%

Source · Oxford Football Forecasting model

Bracket position Half 0 · Quadrant 0

Earliest possible meetings

No collision rows recorded for this team.

Collision = the earliest round the bracket wiring could pit Germany against that side. Full bracket & collision matrix →

Match 10 · 2026-06-14 · Houston Stadium home
Germany Curaçao
93.5% win 5.2% draw 1.3% loss
Most likely 3–0 (13.0%) λ 3.85–0.44 Over 2.5 80% · BTTS 35%
Match 33 · 2026-06-20 · Toronto Stadium home
Germany Côte d'Ivoire
56.1% win 26.2% draw 17.7% loss
Most likely 1–0 (13.0%) λ 1.65–0.82 Over 2.5 45% · BTTS 46%
Match 56 · 2026-06-25 · New York/New Jersey Stadium away
Germany Ecuador
39.9% win 30.7% draw 29.4% loss
Most likely 1–1 (14.3%) λ 1.23–1.02 Over 2.5 39% · BTTS 46%
How a match forecast is built

Each pairing is scored by the ensemble (Dixon-Coles bivariate-Poisson, the Bayesian hierarchical model and the global LightGBM-Poisson, log-pooled), producing an 11×11 scoreline grid that is marginalised into win/draw/loss, expected goals (λ), over/under 2.5 and both-teams-to-score. These are the same distributions the tournament simulator consumes, oriented here to Germany. Knockout fixtures are not shown — their occupants are still probabilistic, so there is no single pairing to forecast yet.

Fig. D2 Relative to the 48-team median

Germany vs the field

Elo rating: 1932 vs field median 1780 (1.09× the field) Elo rating 1932 med 1780 Recent NT form: 2.13 ppg vs field median 1.87 ppg (1.14× the field) Recent NT form 2.13 ppg med 1.87 ppg Squad value: €1114M vs field median €286M (3.90× the field) Squad value €1114M med €286M Squad form (global): 0.308 vs field median 0.211 (1.46× the field) Squad form (global) 0.308 med 0.211 Fitness readiness: 0.815 vs field median 0.707 (1.15× the field) Fitness readiness 0.815 med 0.707 Familiarity / chemistry: 0.089 vs field median 0.015 (5.79× the field) Familiarity / chemistry 0.089 med 0.015 Experience (mean caps): 23 vs field median 25 (0.94× the field) Experience (mean caps) 23 med 25

Read each row as a multiple of the field median: dots to the right of the dashed line are above-field, to the left below. Raw values are labelled on the right so the comparison is transparent.

Source · Oxford Football Forecasting model

Fig. D3 Bayesian projection residual g

Germany on the decoupling axis

aligned (0) ← record > squad price squad valued > record →

g = +0.16 ± 0.07: the squad is valued above its record — the transfer market rates this side above what its results have earned.

Source · Oxford Football Forecasting model
What g means — and its limits

g is the residual from regressing a team’s current squad market value on its history-based strength in the Bayesian hierarchical model. Positive g means the squad is valued above what the team’s record predicts; negative means the record outruns the squad’s price (the side achieves more than its market value implies). Regressed on out-of-sample success the slope is positive — squad-rich sides go a touch further — but not statistically significant at n = 3 tournaments, so treat a single team’s g as a descriptive read, not a hard prediction. The full decoupling essay →

26players
25.8mean age
23mean caps
96%in a top-5 league
13distinct clubs
6largest club bloc
# Player Pos Club League Club min Gls Caps NT gls
1Manuel NeuerGKBayern MunichBundesliga +1.84z3,93001240
2Antonio RüdigerDFReal MadridLa Liga +2.13z2,5401823
3Waldemar AntonDFBorussia DortmundBundesliga +1.84z4,8273130
4Jonathan TahDFBayern MunichFriendlies Clubs −0.05z271471
5Aleksandar PavlovićMFBayern MunichBundesliga +1.84z3,3624111
6Joshua Kimmich (captain)DFBayern MunichBundesliga +1.84z4,448311010
7Kai HavertzFWArsenalPremier League +2.21z1,12875822
8Leon GoretzkaMFBayern MunichBundesliga +1.84z2,52467015
9Jamie LewelingMFVfB StuttgartBundesliga +1.84z3,5581151
10Jamal MusialaMFBayern MunichBundesliga +1.84z1,2695429
11Nick WoltemadeFWNewcastle UnitedPremier League +2.21z3,05711114
12Oliver BaumannGKTSG HoffenheimBundesliga +1.84z3,2700130
13Pascal GroßMFBrighton & Hove Albionno club data181
14Maximilian BeierFWBorussia DortmundBundesliga +1.84z2,9161290
15Nico SchlotterbeckDFBorussia DortmundBundesliga +1.84z3,5005270
16Angelo StillerMFVfB StuttgartBundesliga +1.84z4,322380
17Florian WirtzMFLiverpoolPremier League +2.21z3,51374111
18Nathaniel BrownDFEintracht FrankfurtBundesliga +1.84z3,460450
19Leroy SanéMFGalatasaraySüper Lig +0.49z3,08377617
20Nadiem AmiriMFMainz 05Bundesliga +1.84z2,83817111
21Alexander NübelGKVfB StuttgartBundesliga +1.84z4,551030
22David RaumDFRB LeipzigBundesliga +1.84z2,9233371
23Felix NmechaMFBorussia DortmundBundesliga +1.84z3,667781
24Malick ThiawDFNewcastle UnitedPremier League +2.21z4,684550
25Assan OuédraogoMFRB LeipzigBundesliga +1.84z986411
26Deniz UndavFWVfB StuttgartBundesliga +1.84z3,6432596

Source · Official squad announcements · API-Football (global club coverage). 1 of 26 players have no club season matched in API-Football — shown as “— no club data”, not imputed. Form coverage for this squad: 96%.

Diaspora in the hosts

698,534

8.0 per 1,000 of home population

Host-language familiarity

Foreign

primary language German

Climate adaptation gap

+4.2°C

home-vs-venue heat differential

Venue extremes

47°C

peak heat index · altitude up to 81 m

Travel

7h

max time-zone shift · nearest venue 6,113 km

Source · UN DESA international migrant stock · US Census Bureau · Open-Meteo & venue records

Fig. D4 eloratings.net method · year-end values

Germany — Elo since 1950

2004 world #10
Germany Qualified-field median

Germany ends the series at 2004 Elo, the world’s 10th-ranked side — above the qualified-field median.

Source · eloratings.net
Which Elo is this?

This line is the public eloratings.net series (year-end ratings), which terminates exactly at the current rating and world rank shown on the marker. It is a different number from the Elo shown in the header band (a panel-normalised rating used inside the forecast); the two are ~0.99 correlated but on different scales. We keep them distinct rather than blend them.

96% Squad club-form coverage Share of this squad with a matched club season feeding the global form layer.
96% Fitness-readiness coverage Where below 100%, part of the fitness signal is imputed by the de-biasing layer.
n = 3 Out-of-sample tournaments The model is validated on three held-out World Cups; it matches the market, it does not beat it.

Validated on n=3 held-out tournaments; coverage below 1.0 means part of this squad's club-form/fitness is imputed (the global de-biasing layer). For Germany, 1 of 26 players are shown as “— no club data”. Full validation, calibration & conformal coverage →