England Announce Friendly With Germany

England will play Germany in a friendly at Berlin's Olympic Stadium on November 19, the Football Association has announced.

"This should be a great match," said the England manager Fabio Capello in a statement released by the FA this afternoon. "I'm delighted this fixture has been arranged, it should be a real challenge and something the players will look forward to."

Although England were last in Germany in 2001, when Michael Owen scored a hat-trick in England's 5-1 World Cup Qualifying win in Munich, this match will represent their first trip to Berlin since 1972. On that occasion England, taking on West Germany in the quarter-finals of that year's European Championship, drew 0-0, crashing out of the tournament 3-1 on aggregate.

More recently, the last meeting between the two sides was at Wembley last August when Germany outplayed Steve McClaren's England team to record a 2-1 victory.

Capello's first match in charge is the sold-out home game against Switzerland at Wembley on February 6. England then travel to Paris to play another friendly against France on March 26. Talks are still taking place on England's summer fixtures, including a likely match against Scotland at Wembley.