Berlin (dpa) – The German national team starts the World Cup year. Hansi Flick’s selection meets Israel in Sinsheim on Saturday. It is the first test for the finals in Qatar.
Other teams like Italy and Portugal still have to fight for their place in the playoffs. For the German U21 it is about the EM ticket.
National team:
Hansi Flick gets started. In Gravenbruch near Frankfurt, the national coach gathers his squad on Monday evening for the first two international matches of the national soccer team in the World Cup year. The first test is against Israel in Sinsheim on Saturday. Three days later, the Netherlands are the opponents in the always explosive neighborhood duel in Amsterdam. After several absences like Niklas Süle, Leon Goretzka, Marco Reus or Robin Gosens, Flick had to reassemble his staff. Karim Adeyemi also canceled on Sunday due to an injury. In Julian Weigl, Benjamin Henrichs and Robin Koch, three national players are returning after a long break. The only newcomer is Anton Stach from Mainz. “Basically, we want to get used to it, get the automatisms in,” said Flick.
World Cup qualification:
17 of 32 World Cup tickets are still available for the finals in Qatar. In Europe, the playoffs for the last three finalists are coming up. Russia has been excluded because of the aggressive war in Ukraine. This gave Poland a bye for the final (against Sweden or the Czech Republic). Ukraine’s playoff games have been postponed to the summer. Former German U21 coach Stefan Kuntz is also present with Turkey in the semi-finals on Thursday. The difficult away game in Portugal is waiting. The winner will then face European champions Italy or North Macedonia on March 29th. Ex-world champion Uruguay also has to tremble in South America. In Africa, Liverpool stars Sadio Mané and Mohamed Salah will face off in an explosive play-off duel between Senegal and Egypt after the two teams recently met in the Africa Cup of Nations final – with Senegal ending better.
DFB juniors:
For the German youth national teams, the final hunt for the EM tickets begins this week. Coach Antonio Di Salvo’s U21s can take a big step towards the 2023 finals in Romania and Georgia with wins against Latvia on Friday in Aachen and four days later in Israel. Hannes Wolf’s U19s are in Finland against the hosts, Italy and Belgium for their first European Championship ticket since 2017. Only the group winners are there. For the U17 selection of Marc-Patrick Meister, on the other hand, second place in the group against Georgia, the Czech Republic and host Scotland might be enough to qualify for the European Championship.
Champions League:
In the Bundesliga, the women of VfL Wolfsburg and FC Bayern Munich compete for the top spot – in the Champions League both clubs want to take a step towards the semi-finals. The FCB women welcome Paris Saint-Germain on the big stage in the first leg of the quarter-finals on Tuesday (6.45 p.m.). For the first time in their club history, the Munich team will play a game in the Allianz Arena. VfL want to get a good starting position for the second leg at Arsenal WFC on Wednesday (9:00 p.m.). The Lower Saxony hope for the third title in the premier class.