Convincing win in opener

Berlin – success! Germany’s U21 side won their first game of the European Championship in Poland. Stefan Kuntz’s men fully deserved all three points on Sunday evening (18/06/17). “We were a bit tentative to start the game. The lead was psychologically a huge relief, and it helped us relax,” said the manager, who chose to start Niklas Stark, Mitchell Weiser, and the newly-signed Davie Selke. Max Meyer (44’) of Schalke 04 and Serge Gnabry (50’), who recently made the move from Werder Bremen to Bayern München, scored the goals for Germany. 

Niklas Stark was commanding from the heart of defence for the whole 90 minutes as he put in a solid performance, while his Berlin teammate Weiser started on the right-side of midfield, setting up Max Meyer’s opening goal. Selke, who will play his first game for Hertha in the upcoming season, lead the DFB attack and consistently posed a threat to the Czech goal, although he didn’t have much luck on his side on the night. The 22-year-old stepped up to take a penalty in the closing stages of the game (85’), but it was parried away. “I’m sorry not to have stuck it in the back of the net. We could have scored one or two more goals, but what’s important is that we won our first game,” said Selke. Their second game of the tournament comes against Denmark in Krakow on Wednesday (21/06/17). The kick-off against Denmark, who lost their opener against Italy 2-0, is at 20:45 CEST.