Germany and France are playing in the World Cup quarterfinals on Friday and the game is on ESPN2 and the WatchESPN website starting at 12 pm noon ET from Estádio Maracanã in Rio de Janeiro and the game is the first of the next knockout stage and comes ahead of Colombia and Brazil later in the day as these two European powers collide and both are playing very well and names like Thomas Muller, Karim Benzema and Paul Pogba are looking to be the heroes.

Germany is one of the favorites of the tournament and Thomas Muller is one of the leading scorers and they are the likely winner in this game, but the way this World Cup has gone, anything can happen. France has been playing well and they were one of the higher scoring teams in the group stages and now they have the chance to move into the semifinals with a win against the Germans. France won the tournament over a decade ago when it was in their nation and now both of these teams have to fight history, as no European team has won in South America for the World Cup.

Germany was one of the favorites coming into the tournament and now they have the chance to keep that going and it comes ahead of the Brazil and Colombia matchup later in the day. The winner of this matchup will play whoever wins that game and the German side is looking to make another run to the semis and Germany comes in after playing against Algeria and that matchup was closer than everyone thought it would be and now they are through after getting past that game.

Thomas Muller has been one of the leading scorers in this tournament and France has some players coming in playing well, including Olivier Giroud and Karim Benzema and Germany comes in after making it out the group of death. The United States surprised everyone by going into the knockout stage and while they lost to Belgium, they had a great performance in this tourney.

Check here for the Germany and France live coverage from ESPN for the World Cup in Brazil.