The German U21 footballers suffered a bitter defeat in the first tough test of European Championship qualification. With debutant Tom Bischof as captain, coach Antonio Di Salvo’s DFB selection lost 2:3 (0:2) in Jena to Greece, probably their strongest group opponents, despite a temporary comeback.
Konstantinos Kostoulas (13th), the former Nuremberg Stefanos Tzimas after a great effort from DFB keeper Dennis Seimen (14th) and Dimitris Rallis (81st) ensured the first defeat of a German U21 in the European Championship qualification since November 2021 (0-4 against Poland) in front of 7,830 spectators at the Ernst Abbe sports field. Hoffenheim’s Muhammed Damar (54th) and Tom Rothe (Union Berlin/59th) had equalized for the DFB selection.
Greece is therefore flawlessly at the top of Group F, but the DFB team is under pressure early in qualifying.
Compared to the confident start in September against Latvia (5-0), Di Salvo had to make a lot of adjustments. Among others, goalkeeper Mio Backhaus (Werder Bremen), captain Finn Jeltsch (VfB Stuttgart) and dribbling artist Brajan Gruda (Brighton & Hove Albion) were injured, and returnee Nnamdi Collins (Eintracht Frankfurt) was not yet fit again after his flu-like infection. Bayern’s young star Bischof received the captain’s armband at his U21 debut.
“I always kept an eye on the team,” said the 20-year-old on “ran”, who had already made his debut with national coach Julian Nagelsmann in June – but had always had to cancel U21 calls due to injuries and the Club World Cup. “Now I’m happy to be here and show what I can do.”
But initially only the Greeks played, who had also won 5-0 against Malta at the start. Kostoulas scored with his head, and just 13 seconds after the kick-off, Seimen unnecessarily dribbled against Tzimas and wasted the ball. Germany was also lucky not to have a penalty whistled against them after an alleged foul by Hendry Blank (Hannover 96) (9th).
U21 must improve in European Championship qualification
The German offensive remained unimaginative for long stretches, and it was only shortly before half-time that Nicoló Tresoldi from FC Brugge (45′) and Nelson Weiper (FSV Mainz 05) had the best chance of making it back with a header on the post (45’+1). “Phew… Unfortunately, that’s a deserved deficit. That wasn’t enough,” said DFB managing director Andreas Rettig at halftime.
Di Salvo reacted and brought in two creative players, the Cologne shooting star Said El Mala and Assan Ouedraogo (RB Leipzig). That inspired the German game. Damar scored with a low shot, Rothe scored with a header from a corner from Bischof. El Mala could have crowned the best phase with the lead (67th), but instead Rallis gave Greece the lead again in the final phase.
On Saturday the DFB team will travel to Nuremberg, and on Sunday they will travel to Belfast together with the senior national team. The first away game in the European Championship qualification against Northern Ireland is on the program there on Tuesday (6:30 p.m./ProSieben MAXX). Only the group winner will safely qualify for the 2027 European Championship finals in Serbia and Albania after the ten match days.