The dream of the title lives: The German U21 soccer players have dramatically reached the semi-finals of the European Championship.
The team of coach Antonio di Salvo defeated Italy on Sunday in a competitive quarter-finals with 3: 2 (2: 2, 0: 0) after extra time and can continue to hope for the fourth European Championship title after 2009, 2017 and 2021. In the fight for the final in Bratislava, the DFB selection will meet France on Wednesday, which Denmark had defeated 3-2 in the early evening.
The Freiburg Merlin Röhl met in Dunajska Streda in the 117th minute for victory for the German U21, which has been unbeaten for 19 games and also won the fourth encounter on her title mission in Slovakia. Nick Woltemade (68.) With his fifth tournament gate and Nelson Weiper (87th), the game had shot in the regular season after the Italian leadership by Luca Koleosho (58th).
Giuseppe Ambrosino (90.+6) saved the Azzurri in front of the eyes of DFB sports director Rudi Völler and DFB managing director Andreas Rettig with a remarkable free kick. In this, the Italians played in double outnumbered after the yellow-red cards for Wilfried Gnonto (80th) and Mattia Zanotti (90th).
U21-European: DI Salvo rotates back
As the only team, the DFB selection had completed the preliminary round with the maximum yield of nine points, for the fight for the semi-finals, Di Salvo switched back to his tried and tested eleven around Woltemade and the attacker Nicolo Tresoldi born in Sardinia.
And the German eleven tried immediately to check the game, but the Italians had the first degree: Koleosho pulled flat from the edge of the penalty area, but Noah Atubolu parried without any problems (7th). On the opposite side, the DFB selection in the game signed up: Woltemade pulled strongly from the left side into the middle and shot just left left (13th).
As a result, the Italians became a bit more active, but both teams always made simple playback errors. The Azzurri were then the more active team: Matteo Prati came to the ball in the best position, but got stuck – at the German counterattack Paul Nebel failed from an acute angle on Italy’s keeper Sebastiano Desplanche (36.). Shortly before the break, Prati (45th) put a long -range shot on the left.
DFB selection initially too unimaginative
After the change of sides, the Italians remained the better team, against the compact defensive of the southern Europeans, hardly anything came to the DFB selection.
Gnonto ran from the side position alone towards Atubolu and failed due to the strongly reacting German keeper (56th). Just two minutes later, Koleosho from 17 meters scored to deserved leadership.
The DFB team tried to answer – and was able to rely on Woltemade once again: the tall striker headed after a corner. The game was now completely open. Weip hit the lead after the flank of Röhl and forwarding from Woltemade, but Ambrosino had the last word in the regular season. In the extension, the German team was clearly superior, Röhl rewarded the DFB team.