Going into the tournament Sancho was billed to become one of England’s most important players, having lit up the Bundesliga with Borussia Dortmund for the last three seasons.
England manager Gareth Southgate however turned to other attacking options for the tournament’s group stages, preferring the likes of Raheem Sterling, Phil Foden, Marcus Rashford, Jack Grealish and Bukayo Saka to the former Manchester City youngster.
Sancho missed out on the England squad entirely for the opening win over Croatia and was an unused substitute against Scotland before appearing for the final six minutes in the last group game versus Czech Republic.
The 21-year-old scored 16 goals and provided 20 assists for Borussia Dortmund last season, and ahead of the England-Germany game on Tuesday, Matthaus is perplexed with Southgate’s decision to restrict Sancho’s involvement at EURO 2020.
'He was one of the best players in the Bundesliga for the last two years,' he said.
'If he is not good enough for England, we would like to give him a German passport.
'It has surprised many in Germany.'
On the game itself, Matthaus, who won the Ballon d’or in 1990, added: “England have a chance to win - but not with penalty kicks."
“If it goes to penalties, Germany will win, so England have to do it inside 120 minutes.
“We are always very good with penalties. It’s always a little bit of a joke between the Germans and the English but if it goes to a shootout then we are the favourites.
