Colours by Country:

England vs. Germany

After England's three pre-war meetings with Germany, it would be over half a century before a re-unified Germany was ready to face England again. Their pre-war encounters had seen the home side wearing their change colours on each occasion. For England, this was a blue shirt at White Hart Lane in 1935, whilst Germany wore red in the two Berlin games, including the infamous 1938 fixture when the England team gave the Nazi salute.

One curious fact, was that England's goalkeeper, Harry Hibbs appears to be wearing a green jersey in the first meeting. It is certainly darker than the more familiar yellow, though we have only black-and-white film to go on.

England's Colours Against Germany 1930-38
No.	Date	Shirts	Shorts	Socks	Gk	Venue	Shirts	Shorts	Socks
171	10 May 1930					Grunewald, Berlin
200	4 December 1935					White Hart Lane, Tottenham, London
216	14 May 1938					Olympiastadion, Berlin

After the war, there were sixteen meetings between England and West Germany, with England wearing red shirts in eleven of them and the West Germans wearing green shirts in the other five.

In 1991, the re-unified German team, as in the three previous visits of West Germany to Wembley, donned a green change kit. This was the reverse design of the adidas kit worn by West Germany in winning the World Cup, the previous year, with the colours of the German flag (black, red and amber) emblazoned in a flash across the arms and chest.

Two years later, they met in the Pontiac Silverdome, in Detroit, England's first indoor international, in the final match of the US Cup tournament. England were wearing their surnames in white across the back of their red shirts and Nigel Martyn became the first goalkeeper to wear blue against the Germans, who won 2-1, to lift the trophy. The colours of the German flag were now only visible on the arms of the adidas shirt.

England broke with tradition for their next encounter, in the semi-finals of the 1996 European Championship. This was another painful experience for the home side, and their all-grey/indigo blue uniform will forever be associated with the defeat on penalties. David Seaman, meanwhile, could hardly fade into the background with his bright red, yellow and green plumage.

Euro 2000 not only saw England beat Germany for the first time in a major tournament since 1966, but it was also the first occasion when both sides wore their change colours; Germany wearing an all-green kit for the first time.

Four months later, for the old Wembley's last fixture, Kevin Keegan tried to evoke the spirit of 1966, by decking England out in red again, but a miserable day was sealed by Dietmar Hamann's historic winner. What revenge was inflicted by England, the following year, though! A stunning 5-1 victory in München, with Michael Owen netting a hat-trick and England back in white shirts against Germany, for the first time in ten years and for the first time in Germany since 1938. This was the popular 2001 shirt with the red stripe down the left side.

They did not meet again until the new stadium was opened in 2007. Germany had turned full circle and reverted back to red shirts not seen since the war, or rather, a modern equivalent, with one black sleeve, as per the latest trend. Germany were victorious at Wembley, but England reversed the 2-1 scoreline in Berlin in 2008, in their own red shirts.

Then came a stunning 4-1 demolition of England at the 2010 World Cup, with England kitted out in all red for the first time against the Germans in the hope that they might start a winning streak in a new variation for the red kit. It didn't work. Germany were back in green for their next Wembley victory, in 2013.

Three years later, all tradition went out of the window as England wore a combination of red, blue and maroon that was unprecedented in their 144-year history, whilst Germany appeared in unfamiliar grey shirts, with dark green sleeves. It did not stop England recording a third successive victory in Germany, however.

Then, it was back to normality for Germany, whilst England wore an all dark-blue kit in each of the 2017 meetings, failing to score in both. Another new German change kit of all-black was brought to Wembley in 2021 when they lost to England in the last sixteen of the European Championship. Their hosts were wearing all white against them for the first time, though they were back in all blue, albeit in a different shade, a year later, whilst Germany wore their women's kit to promote the upcoming Euro 2022, held in England. They were to lose to England in the Wembley final.

For their return meeting in the Nations League, both teams had new kits in preparation for the 2022 World Cup. Though they had worn their change kit in München, England again switched, to their new all-red kit to face Germany again at Wembley, with the visitors wearing a distinctive broad black vertical band down the front of their shirts. It was a lively encounter and ended 3-3.

England's Colours Against Germany 1991-2022

No.

Date

Shirts

Shorts

Socks

GK

Venue

Shirts

Shorts

Socks

677

11 September 1991

Wembley Stadium, Wembley, London

699

19 June 1993

Pontiac Silverdome, Pontiac, Michigan, United States

726

26 June 1996

Wembley Stadium, Wembley, London

770

17 June 2000

Stade Communal, Charleroi, Belgium

773

7 October 2000

Wembley Stadium, Wembley, London

782

1 September 2001

Olympiastadion, München

854

22 August 2007

The National Stadium, Wembley, London

870

19 November 2008

Olympiastadion, Westend, Berlin

888

27 June 2010

Free State Stadium, Manguang/Bloemfontein, South Africa

927

19 November 2013

The National Stadium, Wembley, London

951

26 March 2016

Olympiastadion, Westend, Berlin

965

22 March 2017

Signal Iduna Park, Westfallenhalle, Dortmund

973

10 November 2017

The National Stadium, Wembley, London

1018

29 June 2021

The National Stadium, Wembley, London

1032

7 June 2022

Allianz Arena, München

1036

26 September 2022

The National Stadium, Wembley, London

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