A week and a half before the start of the European Championship, the German U21 national team won a (high-scoring) test match. The German Football Association's selection won 8:0 (5:0) against RB Leipzig's U19s. Eric Martel (4th minute), Paul Nebel (16th), Max Rosenfelder (27th), Brajan Gruda (30th), Nicolò Tresoldi (35th), Ansgar Knauff (52nd) and Nelson Weiper (86th/89th) scored the goals in the match as part of the training camp in Blankenhain.
"First of all, I'm glad that nobody got injured," said coach Antonio Di Salvo after the match. "The game was decent. We practised a lot of sequences that we were able to implement in the game and which we were also able to convert into goals. We scored a set-piece goal, won balls when pressing, played quickly forward and scored goals from them. All in all, I'm satisfied."
The U-21 national team is still preparing in Weimarer Land until Wednesday for this year's U-21 European Championship, which will take place in Slovakia from June 11-28. After missing out on the preliminary round in the summer of 2023, the DFB team wants to reach the final again this time. Slovenia (June 12), the Czech Republic (June 15) and England (June 18) are the group opponents. The two group winners will qualify for the quarter-finals.
General rehearsal behind closed doors
On Thursday, the final rehearsal for the European Championship will take place in an international match against the Finns, who have also qualified for the European Championship. This match will be played at the DFB Campus in Frankfurt/Main and will not be open to the public. The day before, coach Antonio Di Salvo must announce his official 23-man squad to UEFA.
Di Salvo took 26 players with him to the training camp. Stuttgart U17 World Cup winner Finn Jeltsch had to leave the training camp early due to inflammation in his right thigh. His club colleague Nick Woltemade, who has performed so well this season, will only join the U21s after the Nations League.
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