German team shirts for passengers on Lufthansa flight to World Cup

Passengers on a Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt to Chicago were gifted German national team shirts as players and officials were also on board on their way to the World Cup, reported dpa.

The shirts were distributed at the departure gate of flight LH434 and several passengers made immediate use of them. The flight left with a half-hour delay owing to a thunderstorm.

The German team previously travelled to big event on charter flights but this time chose a regular flight for environmental reasons.

Regular Passengers were in economy while first and business class in the Airbus 350-900 was reserved for captain Joshua Kimmich and his team-mates, coach Julian Nagelsmann and his staff and officials.

The team boarded separately after a farewell ceremony by long-time national federation DFB partners Lufthansa.

Germany will be in Chicago for a few days and play a final tune-up match there against the United States on Saturday.

They move into their World Cup base camp in North Carolina on Monday and start the World Cup on June 14 against debutants Curaçao. Ivory Coast and Ecuador are the other group stage opponents.

Germany are coming off eight straight victories and want to get a final boost with success against the US - who were the first opponents when Nagelsmann started as coach back in 2023, with Germany winning 3-1 in Hartford.

Germany want to do better at the World Cup than in 2018 and 2022 when they went out in the group stage but Nagelsmann and the players are not getting carried away.

"We are thinking step by step, game by game, training by training," midfielder Aleksandar Pavlovic said.

However, he also said: "Playing in a tournament everyone has the dream to win it. So do we. We will give our all."