Herthaner on international duty

The Bundesliga didn’t get off to the best start, but focus for five Hertha players will soon switch to their national teams. Captain Dedryck Boyata will link up with Belgium to take on Estonia, Czech Republic and Belarus in their World Cup 2022 qualification games. Belgium sit at the top of Group E and will look to make a big step towards Qatar. “Our goal is of course to win the group and qualify. In the games coming up, we’ll do everything we can to consolidate our position at the top of the group and build on it as well as we can,” said Boyata.

Peter Pekarík also has three qualification games ahead of him. Our number 2 sits in third place in Group H wil Slovakia, one point behind joint group leaders Croatia and Russia. In addition to Cyprus and Slovenia, Pekarík will also face Croatia. “Our group is very tight and there isn’t much separating the teams. We want to take our chance to give ourselves a strong shout of booking our place at the World Cup,” said our defender on the importance of the matches.

There is also Hertha involvement at youth level. Marcel Lotka and Poland face Latvia and Israel in the qualification for the U21 European Championship, while Jurgen Ekkelenkamp and Daishawn Redan will take on Moldova with Netherlands U21 in the same qualifiers.