A successful start to the U21 Euros

In their first game of the U21 European Championship, the Germany U21s celebrated a 3-1 win over Denmark. Arne Maier started the game and put in a good performance, before being substituted off at the break as a precaution after receiving a yellow card. Maximilian Mittelstädt and new signing Eduard Löwen both watched the whole game from the bench. “It was a tactical change, but you shouldn’t forget that Arne hasn’t played for a while,” said U21 coach Stefan Kuntz on Maier’s half-time substitution. The U21s were up 1-0 at the break thanks to Marco Richter’s strike, and saw the game out as 3-1 winners, thanks to another goal from Richter and a strike from Luca Waldschmidt.

At the end came a well-deserved opening win, which gave Germany three points. The result means they currently sit atop Group B. “I’m really happy that the team has started the tournament well, especially since not everything was ideal for us,” said Kuntz, who followed up with an analysis of the match: “At half-time we corrected one or two things. We were implementing one of our ideas too slowly at the back. It all went a lot better in the second half. It was a mix of a match plan and going with the flow of the game, and the players were able to show their high quality.” After their opening win, the Germany U21 team will face Serbia on Thursday (20.06.19, 21:00 CEST) in Trieste, before heading to Udine on Sunday (23.06.19, 21:00 CEST) to play Austria.