Lazaro and Austria beaten in Israel

Sunday night round-up: Mixed results for the five Herthaner on international duty.

Sunday evening produced mixed results for the Hertha players in action with their national team: Niklas Stark, part of the Germany squad for the first time, celebrated a late winner with his team in Amsterdam, despite not featuring in the game. Joachim Löw’s young side won 3-2 against the Netherlands: "Huge compliment to the team for taking three points from what is probably the toughest opposition in the group. I thought we were outstanding in the first half," said the DFB head coach. Leroy Sané and Serge Gnabry gave Germany a 2-0 lead at half time, while Nico Schulz provided the winner in the closing stages, after the Netherlands had fought back to 2-2.

Ondrej Duda and Peter Pekarik lost 1-0 to Wales with Slovakia. Daniel James scored the only goal of the game in Cardiff, meaning Pavel Hapal’s side missed out what would have been a deserved point to add to the three they picked up on Thursday night against Hungary. Ondrej Duda, who played 63 minutes, and Peter Pekarik, who was taken off in stoppage time, still lead Group E after two games despite losing their second game. For Valentino Lazaro and Austria, there was no such consolation, as they lost 4-2 in Israel, leaving them with zero points from the opening two qualifiers. Lazaro, who once again played for the full 90 minutes said following after the painful defeat: "We’ve never had a Messi or a Ronaldo, but when we play with our hearts on our sleeves we can compete with big nations. We need to start doing that again." Elsewhere, Jonathan Klinsmann was brought on in the 65th minute of the USA U23s’ friendly against the Netherlands U21s. Two days after the side’s 2-0 defeat to Egypt’s U21s, Sunday’s encounter ended goalless.

On Tuesday, 26th March, the final group of international fixtures will take place before club football returns. Dennis Jastrzembski will face Hungary with the Germany U21s at 14:00 CET, while Rune Jarstein and Norway are set to face rivals Sweden in Oslo. Vladimir Darida and the Czech Republic face a friendly in Prague against Brazil, as does Hertha’s Germany U21 quartet of Maximilian Mittelstädt, Arne Maier, Jordan Torunarigha and Lukas Klünter, who travel to England for a 20:45 CET kick off.