Trailing second-placed Northern Ireland four points, Czech Republic need to try and defeat the World Cup holders in order to keep their qualifying hopes alive.

Six straight wins and 27:1 goal difference are enough to suggest that beating red-hot Germany will be no easy task as die Mannschaft hope to book their ticket to Russia as soon as possible.

Czech Republic only once qualified for the World Cup finals since parting ways with Slovakia, crashing out in the group stage at the 2006 tournament in Germany.

They had more success in continental competitions, making six straight appearances at the Euros, finishing as runners up in 1996 and securing third place in 2004.

However, the team have been on a downtrend of late, as witnessed by some under-par performances in the current qualifying campaign.

The poor start could end up costing the team dearly with just two points taken from first three games, so this is clearly a must-win match for Karel Jarolim’s side.

Milan Skoda, Patrik Schick, Michal Kadlec and Tomas Sivok all miss out, as the team mostly consist of domestic based footballers.

Probable starting line-up (4-2-3-1): Vaclik – Kaderabek, Suchy, Kalas, Gebre Selassie – Darida, Soucek – Krejci, Dockal, Zmrhal – Krmencik.

Germany have reached new heights under Joachim Low, lifting the 2014 World Cup trophy and then also winning the 2017 Confederations Cup with a second-string team.

Die Mannschaft may have failed to impress at the Euro 2016 finals, but they seem determined to defend the World Cup title in Russia.

Joachim Low’s men have been absolutely outstanding so far, winning all six fixtures and conceding just one goal in the process, so they are now 29/20 to defeat Czech Republic to nil.

Andre Schurrle, Karim Bellarabi, Ilkay Gundogan, Mario Gotze, Jerome Boateng, Shkodran Mustafi and Benedikt Howedes have all been overlooked for one reason or another, with Manuel Neuer failing to recover from injury.

Lars Stindl, Niklas Sule, Amin Younes and Timo Werner are some of the players who kept their places after impressing at the Confederations Cup, but Serge Gnabry was forced to withdraw.

An ankle injury got the best of the winger who scored 3 goals in 2 Germany caps, but the good news is that Joachim Low has no other worries.

Probable starting line-up (3-4-2-1): ter Stegen – Rudiger, Hummels, Sule – Kimmich, Khedira, Kroos, Hector – Muller, Ozil – Gomez.