News (engl.)

The Germany U21s won their first game of the year, earning their fifth victory in their sixth match as part of qualifying for the U21 EUROs. Antonio Di Salvo’s side beat Northern Ireland 3-0 at the Eintracht-Stadion in Braunschweig, thanks to goals from Nicolo Tresoldi (11’, 41’) and Nelson Weiper (90’).

Compared to the U21s’ last outing in November against Georgia (2-0 win), Di Salvo made five changes to his starting XI. Werder Bremen’s Mio Backhaus came into goal, while the back four was made up of Linus Gechter, Finn Jeltsch, Joshua Quarshie and Lukas Ullrich. Captain Tom Bischof, Aljoscha Kemlein and Anton Kade pulled the strings in midfield. RB Leipzig’s Brajan Gruda provided the spark on the right wing, with Said El Mala on the left. Nicolo Tresoldi led the line up front.

Tresoldi scores twice

The 10,391 fans in Braunschweig saw Germany take control right from the start, while Northern Ireland sat back and waited. The first big chance of the game came after just over ten minutes: Tresoldi seized on an underhit back pass from Northern Ireland’s Darren Robinson and raced through on goalkeeper Fraser Barnsley, who brought the striker down in the box. Tresoldi picked himself up and calmly converted the resulting penalty low into the bottom-left corner to make it 1-0 (11’).

Northern Ireland, compact in defence, also managed a few attacking moments through a series of clearances. In the 28th minute, Germany captain Bischof delivered a pinpoint corner onto the head of Gechter, but the Northern Ireland goalkeeper made the save. Before that, Germany’s right-back had already caused problems with several dangerous crosses. In the 36th minute, Northern Ireland broke quickly after a long-range effort from Bischof and found striker Makenzie Kirk with a long ball. He got the better of Quarshie, but his low shot was well dealt with by the alert Backhaus.

Germany’s number nine struck again in the 41st minute. Gruda swung in a left-footed cross from the right-hand side, Ullrich headed it back into the middle, and the lurking Tresoldi only had to nod home for 2-0. Despite a few sloppy moments, Germany U21 went into half time with a deserved lead.

Kömür crashes one against the bar

Di Salvo made one change at the break, bringing on Mert Kömür for Gruda. The second half began with a decent chance for El Mala, who dragged his shot just wide of the left post (47’). Two minutes later, Kömür went even closer with a brilliant effort from the left edge of the box that crashed against the bar (49’). Germany continued to push forward after that, which left space for Northern Ireland to counter several times. The visitors threatened in the 54th minute when they broke down the left and found striker Eoin Kenny in the middle, but he fired over the bar.

Centre-back Karim Coulibaly and holding midfielder Mika Baur both made their U21 debuts in the 62nd minute when they came on for Jeltsch and Bischof. In the minutes that followed, the lively Kömür had another effort before the game settled down a little. In the 73rd minute, VfL Wolfsburg’s Dzenan Pejcinovic replaced Köln forward El Mala.

Substitute Weiper has the final word

After a foul just outside his own penalty area, Ullrich was shown a yellow card in the 79th minute, but the resulting free-kick caused no danger. Shortly afterwards, Northern Ireland had another go and sent substitute Aodhan Doherty through into the penalty area, but Backhaus got down to save his shot. In the 85th minute, Nelson Weiper replaced Tresoldi, before wrapping things up in the 90th minute when he poked the ball home from close range to make it 3-0.

Following the win over Northern Ireland, Germany remain second in Group F in qualifying for the U21 EUROs, as leaders Greece also beat Malta. On Tuesday, 31st March (18:00 CEST), Germany travel to Athens for a top-of-the-table clash with Greece.