England v Germany preview: women's football comes of age at Wembley

England cruised through their 2015 World Cup qualifying campaign, with ten wins out of ten – and now in the lead-up to next summer they’re testing themselves against the best.

After a thumping 4-0 win against Sweden at Hartlepool in August, Mark Sampson’s team now face Silvia Neid’s Germany – ranked second in the world, twice world champions, and eight-time European champions.

What’s more, they’re playing at the new Wembley for the first time, and expecting a 55,000 sell-out crowd.

England’s Karen Carney is in line for her 100th cap, making her yet another centurion in the squad after Liverpool’s Fara Williams broke the all-time appearance record earlier in the year.

Veteran centre half and former captain Casey Stoney misses out due to fitness issues.

Germany are without goalkeeper and current FIFA Women’s World Player of the Year Nadine Angerer due to injury.

Mark Sampson: “You know coming into a tournament that the Germans will be there or thereabouts. For us that’s where we want to be. We want to be going into major tournaments, playing against the likes of Germany and trying to win.

“It’s a good test for us and we will be treating it as a proper game. We won’t be going into it as a friendly match. We’ll be going there to try and perform as best we can and try and get the result for our supporters. We’re excited by it, obviously, but we need to make sure that we prepare right for it and we treat it as a game which is another chance for us to get better.”

England striker Lianne Sanderson: “I love testing myself against the best players in the world, so Germany, USA, Sweden – they are the type of teams I enjoy playing against. It will be a massive test, but one we can’t wait for.

“We weren’t overly stretched in the qualifiers, but when we beat Sweden 4-0 in a friendly we showed how well we can play and how far we have come. In previous years we’d have been a little bit nervous about playing Germany. But now there is a buzz and a confidence around the team. Not an arrogance, just a confidence. We are not getting carried away.”

Germany midfielder Lena Goessling: ““England are a tough opponent. These encounters are important in order to grow as a team. “We want to improve on the things that didn’t go so well in the past two games. Our plan is to play as a compact unit. Accuracy in our final passing has to improve and obviously we want to end the year with a win.”

Ticket sales were closed after 55,000 had been sold due to public transport problems around the Wembley area.

This is the first time England will have played at Wembley since it re-opened in 2007.

Germany have won two World Cups and eight European Championships, including each of the last six.

Both England and Germany won ten games out of ten in qualifying for the 2015 World Cup.

England 10/3, Germany 8/13, draw 11/4