Osnabrück (dpa) – According to U21 national coach Antonio Di Salvo, the intermediate goal of qualifying for the European Championship is particularly important for the further development of his young players.
“That’s the first big goal,” said Di Salvo before the game on Friday (6:15 p.m. / Sat.1) against Hungary in Osnabrück, in which a draw is enough to qualify for the 2023 European Championship. “We have seen in recent years how important a European Championship is for the development of the players. Many have been able to gain experience and have made it into the senior national team.”
Under coach Stefan Kuntz and assistant coach Di Salvo, the German U21 footballers became European champions in 2021 and 2017 and made it to the EM final in 2019. Despite their comfortable starting position in the group, the German selection now wants to play for a win against Hungary. “We want to dominate the game, we want to play forward, we want to put the lid on it,” promised Di Salvo.
Focusing on the U21s after two weeks of vacation after the end of the season with the clubs was “not difficult at all for U21 captain Jonathan Burkardt. The first two days you might have a bit of a war with the ball after two weeks of vacation, but now it’s already there great fun again,” he said with a grin. “The desire to put the lid on is huge. We don’t just want to get one point, but three,” announced the professional from FSV Mainz 05.