Germany (1-0-1, 3 points) vs. South Korea (0-0-2, 0 points)

Defending champion Germany got new life with Saturday’s exhilarating win over Sweden, but its work is far from over and it goes into its group-stage finale against South Korea perhaps a bit shorthanded. Defender Jerome Boateng will miss the game while serving a red-card suspension over his antics in the Sweden game while Sebastian Rudy, a defensive-minded midfielder, seems likely to miss the match after suffering a broken nose that required surgery. Mats Hummels, Rudy’s Bayern Munich teammate, seems likely to play after missing the Sweden game with a neck injury, however.

South Korea has injury troubles of its own: Team captain Ki Sung-Yueng — the team’s most-capped player — will miss the game with a calf injury, putting more pressure on Son Heung-min to power an attack that’s produced just one goal through two games. Son scored that goal in stoppage time against Mexico, preventing a second consecutive shutout, and his eight shots against El Tri were more than South Korea had as a team in its opening loss to Sweden.

Germany

• Previous results: Lost to Mexico, 1-0. Defeated Sweden, 2-1.
• What’s at stake: Germany will advance to the knockout round with a win plus a Sweden loss/draw against Mexico. If both Germany and Sweden draw, it would come down to tiebreakers. If both Sweden and Germany win, there would be a three-way tie in points atop the Group F standings that would be decided first by goal differential and then by total goals scored (and then by even more tiebreaker situations if things get really insane.)
• Notable: Die Mannschaft has advanced to at least the quarterfinals in nine consecutive World Cups. It has reached the semifinals in four straight.
• FIFA world ranking: 1. ELO world ranking: 3.

South Korea

• Previous results: Lost to Sweden, 1-0. Lost to Mexico, 2-1.
• What’s at stake: South Korea is mathematically alive, though the statisticians at FiveThirtyEight have given it just a 1 percent chance of advancing. South Korea needs to beat Germany and hope Mexico defeats Sweden to have any shot of getting things to the tiebreakers.
• Notable: South Korea is looking to get out of the group stage for the first time since 2010 and just the second time in its history.
• FIFA world ranking: 57. ELO world ranking: 45.

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