U21 European Championship qualification
Bayern professional breaks the spell – Germany celebrates a mandatory victory
Updated 11/18/2025 – 8:01 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
After Greece’s renewed victory, the German team was challenged in order not to lose touch with first place. Antonio Di Salvo’s team appeared confident in Georgia.
Assist Said El Mala, next goal Lennart Karl: Thanks to their two shooting stars, the German U21 footballers still have direct European Championship qualification in their own hands. In Georgia, coach Antonio Di Salvo’s team won the important endurance test at the end of the year 2-0 (1-0) and remains on the heels of league leaders Greece in Group F. The gap is still three points at halftime of the qualification.
Against a low-lying opponent, it took a combination of the two youngest players in the team to finally untie the knot in stoppage time in the first half. Returnee El Mala (19) from 1. FC Köln extended a corner with his head, and Karl (17/FC Bayern) only had to push it in at the second post (45th + 2). He had already scored twice on his debut on Friday against Malta (6-0). Nicoló Tresoldi (FC Brugge) made the final score (58th).
“We have to win every game and do our homework,” demanded Di Salvo before the game on Sat.1, looking at the table in which the Greeks had even moved up to six points after their 4-0 win against Northern Ireland in the early afternoon.
El Mala moved straight back into the starting line-up after his interlude with the senior national team and, according to Di Salvo, should take his “elation” with him. That succeeded. Augsburg’s Mert Kömür with a side kick (14th), Tresoldi with a header against the post (25th) and Union Berlin’s Aljoscha Kemlein (26th) left the lead on a cross from the Cologne shooting star before Karl was spot on after a corner from Bayern team-mate Tom Bischof and extra time from El Mala.
Overall, however, the DFB selection had a difficult time against the Georgians, who lost 3-0 in Greece on Friday. Di Salvo, who failed in the preliminary round at the European Championships in Georgia in 2023 in his first tournament as head coach with the U21s and thus missed the Olympic tickets for Paris, repeatedly loudly called for “more speed” on the sidelines. “We have to score the second goal as quickly as possible,” warned assistant coach Shkodran Mustafi at half-time.
Karl had the first good opportunity after the break (56th), goalkeeper Dennis Seimen (SC Paderborn), who this time was preferred to Mio Backhaus (Werder Bremen), was largely unemployed at the back. Tresoldi calmed things down with his second goal after just under an hour of play.