Germany winger Serge Gnabry (#17) against a South Korean defender. (Photo : Getty Images)
Predicted contenders Germany (0-0-2, 2 points) will try to advance outright into the quarterfinals of the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics men's football tournament after a slow start as they face lowly squad Fiji (0-2-0, 0 points) on Wednesday, August 10 at the Mineirão, Belo Horizonte.
The German under-23 squad was seen in pre-Olympics forecasts as a team to reach at least the semifinals of this summer's event together with defending champions Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia.
However, after two rounds, head coach Horst Hrubesch's boys have disappointed with two draws and only two points in the Group C standings.
An expected win over Fiji will give them five points, which means they will automatically advance in the knockout stages if the other final round match between South Korea and Mexico, who are tied with four points each in the standings, will not end up in a draw.
Die Nationalelf settled to a 3-3 draw with the Koreans in their second round meeting at the Itaipava Arena Fonte Nova in Salvador on Sunday to remain winless in two games, as per NBC Olympics.
Meanwhile, Fiji, the lone qualifier from Oceania, is simply not in the level of their groupmates as they were whitewashed in their first two games in the tournament.
After an 8-0 drubbing from the Taegeuk Warriors during their Olympic-opener, the Bula Boys were then romped by Mexico, 5-1, also at the Itaipava Arena last Sunday, SB Nation reported.
Head coach Frank Farina's side actually opened the scoring in the contest with a goal from Wellington Phoenix striker Roy Krishna at the 10th minute as the team held on to have a 1-0 lead at the halftime break.
However, El Tricolor showed their true colors in the second half by hauling down five goals, four of which came from midfielder Erick Gutierrez while the other one was from defender Carlos Salcedo.
Fiji is now officially eliminated from the competitions which make this game against Germany a no-bearing one.
The predicted result is a 5-0 rout for Germany.
Germany starting lineup (4-2-3-1 formation): Horn; Toljan, Ginter, Sule, Klostermann; L. Bender, S. Bender; Brandt, Meyer, Gnabry; Selke
Fiji starting lineup (4-2-3-1 formation): Tamanisau; Khem, Singh, Dreloa, Naidu; Tuivuna, Chand; Hughes, Nakalevu, Verevou; Krishna
