Several familiar faces are missing when Germany face England in a friendly at the Olympiastadion tonight.
Spain coach Vicente del Bosque is also likely to find his selections influenced by injury before the European champions host Chile at Villarreal's Madrigal as Italy coach Marcello Lippi will be hoping his team avoids defeat against Greece to equal a world record of 31 international games without defeat.
In another friendly squeezed into a busy programme of club football, Raymond Domenech's France play Uruguay while Brazil will try and score their first goal at home since last November when they face Portugal in Brasilia.
Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Rio Ferdinand and Joe Cole are among the England players out through injury while David Beckham's lack of recent action means he was not considered.
Germany are without captain Michael Ballack, midfielder Torsten Frings, attacking full-back Philipp Lahm and Jens Lehmann, their recently-retired goalkeeper.
The last time the teams met in Germany, in 2001, England won 5-1 in a World Cup qualifier in Munich. Germany won the last meeting 2-1 at Wembley last year.
Italy's Lippi knows only too well that top class footballers who play on the left are rare.
The world champions are without injured full-back Gianluca Zambrotta and left winger Antonio Di Natale for the trip to Athens and the options to replace them are scant.
Udinese's Di Natale, the key part of Lippi's favoured three-pronged attack, will be badly missed with Vincenzo Iaquinta the most likely to awkwardly fill in on the left.
Across his two stints in charge and a World Cup win, Lippi has equalled 1934 and 1938 World Cup-winning coach Vittorio Pozzo's Italy record of 30 straight games without defeat.
A result in Greece will better that mark and put Lippi level with former Argentina coach Alfio Basile and ex-Spain boss Javier Clemente at the top of the all-time list.
For Spain, Euro 2008 mainstays Andres Iniesta and David Silva are long-term lay-offs while several others are doubtful.
When he unveiled his squad last week Del Bosque promised not to force anyone to play today.
Fernando Torres, of Liverpool, and Daniel Guiza, of Fenerbahce, have just returned after injury so the surprise call-up of Fernando Llorente could see the Athletic Bilbao striker given his debut.
Del Bosque's side top World Cup qualifying Group Five with four wins out of four and are unbeaten in 27 matches since losing a friendly against Romania 1-0 in Cadiz in November 2006. They have never lost to Chile, winning five and drawing once in six meetings.
The once free-scoring Brazilians have been held to goalless draws by Argentina, Bolivia and Colombia, all in World Cup qualifiers, in their last three home games as coach Dunga has struggled to find ways of breaking down packed defences.
Dunga's side have played for 295 minutes at home without hitting the back of the opposing net since Luis Fabiano scored in the 2-1 win over Uruguay in Sao Paulo last November.
Portugal will become the first European side to visit Brazil in over six years.
Brazil last hosted a European side in March 2002 when Yugoslavia went to Fortaleza for a match which marked striker Ronaldo's international comeback after a two-and-a-half year absence.