Germany meets at the U21 European Championship in the quarterfinals on Sunday (June 22nd, 2025, live ticker at Sportschau.de) at 9 p.m. on fellow favorite Italy-and national coach Antonio di Salvo has suddenly had plenty of reasons for thinking since the England triumph.
Three games in the preliminary round, three victories – that has never been able to get a German U21 team at a European Championship before.
After the 3-0 at the start against Slovenia with three goals from Nick Woltemade and the 4: 2 over the Czech Republic for an hour, it looked as if Di Salvo found his formation for the further course of the tournament: In both successes, the identical starting formation was on the law “Never Change A Winning Team” invented.
Eleven change – and almost all of them fit perfectly
Di Salvo has no English roots, but German-Italian, he was born in Paderborn, he learned to play football in Bad Lippspringe in Westphalia. The fact that a team can be changed despite the ongoing winning streak, he has 2-1 against the Young Lions Proven impressively in Nitra on Wednesday evening. And that he has courage, as well. He quickly exchanged the entire team and brought eleven fresh forces against the defending champion.
They made their job so convincing that Di Salvo now has to solve sports tasks in several positions. Everyone would understand if they would fall back on the Slovenia and Czech Republic in the first KO game. But some of his protégés against England actually did too well.
Knauff with two thick exclamation marks
Ansgar Knauff provided the most visible arguments on its own behalf. The Turbo rights in Eintracht Frankfurt achieved the early tour gate after class ball acceptance and a perfect final posture and suggested the Maßlanke on center forward Nelson Weiper before the second goal.
Nelson Weiper against England’s Omari Hutchinson at the U21 European Championship
Weiper shone in the top not only through his massive header, in which he easily skipped two English defenders. He also worked excellently in counterpressing, was extremely happy and plunged into the duels.
Knauf’s competitor on the right is Paul Nebel, who was one of the goal scorers against the Czech Republic – but this duel is now completely open. For the Mainz Weiper, Nicolo Tresoldi would have to give way against Italy, which is very conceivable. However, the Hanoverian previously harmonized the Woltemade set perfectly and created many rooms for the Stuttgart.
Two strong sixes – but it will be tight for them
The interaction of the two defensive midfielder also worked out very well against England. Casper Jander and Merlin Röhl found an excellent mix of the game overview, defensive protection and offensive accents.
From Röhl’s comment, however, it can already be heard that he felt little ambitions to suppress the two trunk six Eric Martel and Rocco Reitz: “We showed that we are a great team and the coach trusted each one of us. It was certainly good for the others that they could now take a game.”
Merlin Röhl against Jonathan Rowe in the game against England
Ullrich with good chances on links
Despite a top performance back to the bench, playmaker Paul Wanner, who was loaned from Bayern to Heidenheim last season. Tjark Ernst also delivered an impressive performance to the point in the goal, but number one should remain number one.
However, a change is possible on the left defensive side, if not likely. Lukas Ullrich shone with the dream flank to the Knauff goal and then kept the English wonder child Ethan Nwaneri excellently in check. Ullrich’s competitor is the Frankfurt Nathaniel Brown, who has not yet disappointed, but has now to worry about his regular place. He has not been with it since the England game.