It’s shaping up to be quite a few weeks for German football.

The country is preparing to stage the European Championship over June and July, with Germany’s national team taking a nicely timed upturn in form.

Before that, Germany might yet be celebrating having a European champion once again, with Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund making up half of the lineup for the Champions League semi-finals beginning this week.

The last time Bayern and Dortmund both reached the Champions League semi-finals was in 2013 and they went on to meet in the title match at Wembley Stadium, with Bayern winning 2-1. As fate would have it, Wembley will be hosting the final this year, too.

Setting up a repeat of that 2013 final would mean upsetting the odds.

Bayern are up against another European heavyweights in Real Madrid, the record 14-time champions and kings of the competition.

Dortmund face Paris Saint-Germain, whose star striker Kylian Mbappe is looking to lead the French team to its first-ever Champions League title in his last season there before a likely move to Madrid.

Germany didn’t have a single semi-finalist in each of the last three seasons. In the 2019-20 competition, it had two — Bayern and Leipzig — and Bayern were the eventual champions.

This season, Bayern and Dortmund have mounted impressive European campaigns while underperforming on the domestic front.

Bayern have relinquished their Bundesliga title to Bayer Leverkusen after an 11-year hold on the biggest prize in German football, and need to win the Champions League to avoid a first trophy-less season since 2012.

Dortmund, meanwhile, are in fifth place in the league so their deep run in Europe has come as something of a surprise.

Madrid should arrive well rested after the Spanish league moved their game at Real Sociedad to Friday. Madrid won 1-0.

With Madrid set to win Spain’s domestic title, coach Carlo Ancelotti kept Jude Bellingham, Vinícius Júnior, Eduardo Camavinga, Toni Kroos, Federico Valverde, Antonio Rudiger and goalkeeper Andriy Lunin on the bench at the start of the league game in San Sebastian. Forward Rodrygo did not travel with the team because of flu.

All started against Manchester City in the second leg of the quarter finals and are expected to be back in the starting lineup against Bayern.

Bayern coach Thomas Tuchel is leaving at the end of the season, and the Champions League — which he won with Chelsea in 2021 — offers him the chance to go out on a high.

Two months on from Bayern’s announcement that Tuchel would depart, he seems more popular than ever among sections of the Bayern supporters. Part of that is down to the calm, controlled way Bayern knocked out Arsenal in the second leg of their quarter final.

As Tuchel nears the end of a troubled tenure at Bayern, he’s often seemed more upbeat than ever.

“If people want me to stay, it is still an issue that has no priority,” Tuchel said on Friday.

The injuries that have plagued Bayern this season are easing off, too. Tuchel predicted Friday that Serge Gnabry would recover from his latest problem in time to play — and score — against Madrid on Tuesday.