The German U21 national team has no losses to complain about before the European Championship qualifier against Estonia. “All players are healthy and fit”, announced coach Antonio Di Salvo after the final training session on Thursday (11/16/23). In the last international matches of the year, his selection will face Estonia in Paderborn on Friday (6 p.m./live ticker at the Sportschau), and the next game will be in Essen against Poland on Tuesday (6 p.m./live ticker at the Sportschau).
Estonia only managed one point in four games. The German team is currently in second place in Group D with two wins from two games. Poland is three points ahead with one more game played, “A real top game awaits us against this high-class team for first place in the table”predicted Di Salvo, who also doesn’t want to underestimate the players from Estonia, “We will need a highly concentrated performance against them.”
Germany: Reitz and Röhl, the two little “Messis”
Shooting star Rocco Reitz from Borussia Mönchengladbach is hoping for the next milestone in his career just a few days after his first Bundesliga goal. If he were to play for the German U21, that would be the case “the next item on the list of dreams ticked off”said the midfielder, “To be able to wear the eagle on your chest – that’s the most beautiful thing there is.” Reitz played one game for the German U16s in November 2017 (0-4 against the Czech Republic), but has not played a game for a DFB team since then.
Like Reitz, Merlin Röhl (SC Freiburg), who was also nominated, recently scored his first Bundesliga goal after a technically strong performance, which encouraged both of them to exchange words. “There were sentences like ‘The Messi from the Lower Rhine’ or ‘The Messi from the Breisgau’ on the Internet, and we made a few jokes about that.”, revealed Reitz. How things are going at the moment is up to him “not in life” able to imagine.
Adeyemi opts out of the U21s
However, Karim Adeyemi is missing. The winger recently fought his way back into the starting line-up at Borussia Dortmund after a weak start to the season. The new national coach Julian Nagelsmann nevertheless decided not to nominate the 21-year-old. Unlike in October, Adeyemi will not appear for the U21 either, although “Karim would of course have helped us with his quality”, as the unenthusiastic Di Salvo revealed. In total, he nominated 23 players for the first two home games in the current qualifying round.
Moukoko’s great record – “Mouki feels like he can put every ball in”
But in the fight for the top spot, all hopes rest on Youssoufa Moukoko. The 18-year-old scored eleven goals in nine international matches for the youth national team. Moukoko scored twice in the 3-0 opening win in Kosovo and celebrated a hat-trick in the 3-2 win in Bulgaria. “I hope that he can implement the impressions we had last time plus the impressions that the club told me”said Di Salvo, “I hope that he will continue to have this flow”.
My colleagues also rely on this. “Mouki feels like he can put every ball in”said 19-year-old Leandro Morgalla from Salzburg. “As a defender, I’m happy that I’m on the same side and have to defend very little against him – except in training.”