OMNISPORT 

Mario Gomez will start for Germany in the international friendly against England on Saturday with Mario Gotze having to again settle for a place on the bench.

Gotze, the match winner in the 2014 World Cup final victory over Argentina, has endured a miserable season at Bayern Munich, missing five months with a groin problem and then failing to win back his place in the starting XI following his return to full fitness.

While Low admitted he has spoken with the player about his situation at Bayern, he will opt to start Besiktas striker Gomez against the Three Lions in Berlin before handing Gotze his chance in Tuesday's game with Italy.

"He [Gomez] has improved a lot. He has a lot of self-confidence, you can see that in every training session," said Low at Friday's news conference. "Gotze will be a substitute. I had a talk with him last night about his situation in Munich but that stays within the team. He will play against Italy. Karim Bellarabi and Julian Draxler trained yesterday. We do not have any squad issues.

"I want to use this game to get an insight into my players. The result is not so important. We are excited for these two games. They will give us a great perspective of how we can improve."

Low is wary of an England side that boasted a 100 percent record in qualifying for Euro 2016 and is particularly concerned by the threat of Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy.

He added: "England has developed well in the last few years. Roy Hodgson's team showed against Switzerland how organised they were. Vardy is a spectacular player. He is always trying to find a gap to get behind the defense. That is very dangerous.

"We talked about him over the last couple of days, but also England as a whole. Germany against England is a classic. The stadium will be filled with 80,000 people. We are looking forward to it."