Vaals (dpa) – U21 national coach Antonio Di Salvo has to rebuild his squad for the first two international football matches of the year.
Five players have withdrawn from the two games in the European Championship qualifier on Friday (6.15 p.m./ProSieben Maxx) in Aachen against Latvia and on Tuesday (5 p.m./ProSieben Maxx) next week in Petch Tikwa against Israel. With six nominees there are still question marks as to whether they will be fit in time.
“The last few days have been extreme because every minute there was a call from a player or from a club that something had happened,” said Di Salvo from the team headquarters in Vaals, Netherlands. Malick Thiaw (Schalke 04) and Reda Khadra (Blackburn Rovers) had to pull out completely due to injuries, Bochum’s Armel Bella Kotchap and Patrick Osterhage and Hoffenheim’s Luca Philipp are ill.
Four post-nominations
Kevin Schade (SC Freiburg), Angelo Stiller (TSG Hoffenheim), Luca Netz (Borussia Mönchengladbach), Frederik Jäkel (KV Ostend), Malik Tillman (FC Bayern Munich) and Jordan Beyer (Borussia Mönchengladbach) are also injured. Di Salvo reacted by nominating four more players: Faride Alidou (Hamburger SV), Marton Dardai (Hertha BSC), Shinta Appelkamp (Fortuna Düsseldorf) and Vincent Müller (PSV Eindhoven) moved up.
The successor to Stefan Kuntz had already named an XXL squad of 25 professionals last Thursday, among other things with a view to the Corona situation.
For the selection, the games against Latvia and Israel are about the ticket for the 2023 European Championship finals in Romania and Georgia. Despite a 4-0 loss to Poland in November, holders Germany lead their group with 15 points from six games.