WM-News: Pepe can become the third oldest player at the World Cup today – »Just a monster«

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Portugal defending legend Pepe

Photo: Octavio Passos/Getty Images

This text is continuously updated.

Portugal's Pepe can now become the third oldest player in World Cup history

"He's a monster, just a monster," said Portugal national coach Fernando Santos about the defensive veteran Pepe.

Despite his age, the player known for his aggressive style of play is still an important part of the Portuguese national football team.

Aged 39 years, nine months and two days, Pepe is set to play in his fourth World Cup today, making him the third-oldest outfield player in the history of the competition.

Pepe had missed Portugal's opening game against Ghana (3:2), on Monday (8:00 p.m. CET/ARD and MagentaTV) against Uruguay he should now be in the starting XI.

"He will play and will play a very important role," Santos said of the FC Porto defender.

After 2010, 2014 and 2018, it will be Pepe's fourth World Cup appearance, whose real name is Képler Laveran Lima Ferreira.

As far as field players at World Cups are concerned, only Cameroon's Roger Milla at 42 and most recently Canadian Atiba Hutchinson, who celebrates his 40th birthday a good two weeks before Pepe in early February, have been older.

Unforgotten in Germany is the appearance of the FC Porto defender at the start of the 2014 World Cup, when he received a red card against Germany and lost his selection 0:4.

The DFB-Elf in the individual criticism

7.25

a.m .: With his substitutions in the Japan game, Hansi Flick may have coached himself.

In the game against Spain he did better and came on for the win.

Jan Göbel was there in Chaur and took a closer look at the performance of the other German players.

Read here who did a perfect job in defense and who was the best offensive player.

Luis Enrique on Schützenhilfe for Germany: "You have to think about winning yourself"

7.10 a.m .:

Spain’s coach Luis Enrique has been reluctant to provide Spanish support for the German national soccer team.

"We will play to win," he emphasized with a view to the last group game against DFB conqueror Japan.

However, he did not want to promise that he would field his best eleven.

"It doesn't matter which players I choose - they're all good players," said the coach (52) and added to the DFB team: "You have to think about winning yourself - Costa Rica does it well.

And we think of Japan, that will be difficult enough.«

After a draw against Spain, the arithmetic games begin for the German team

7.00 a.m .:

National player Thomas Müller warned his teammates not to be too careless before the group finals at the World Cup in Qatar against Costa Rica.

»The Sweden moment was also there in 2018.

And in the end it fizzled out," said Müller after the 1-1 draw against Spain, remembering the historic preliminary round four years ago in Russia.

At that time, the DFB selection lost to South Korea (0:2) after a last-minute win against Sweden in the last group game.

The arithmetic games in the German camp started right after the final whistle in Chaur.

Joshua Kimmich kept track of the game against Costa Rica on Thursday (8 p.m. CET/ARD and MagentaTV).

"We just have to hope that Japan doesn't win, even win 2-0 - then we'll be through," said Munich, referring to the parallel game between Spain and the four-time Asian champions.

Should Spain win, a win will be enough for the German team to reach the round of 16.

If Japan manages to draw against the 2010 world champions, Germany would have to win by a two-goal margin.

And everything that Joshua Kimmich hasn't already said can be found in our overview of the constellation in Group E.

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