The excitement in the hotel that Germany’s U21s are staying in, in the Polish town of Wieliczka, is practically tangible. The U21 EURO final against Spain awaits them on Friday (20:45 CEST). Stefan Kuntz’s side want to continue putting in great performances, like the one that showed character against England, and win it all. Throughout the tournament so far, Yannick Gerhardt has played in every single game. The 23-year-old VfL Wolfsburg defender hasn’t even missed a single minute as he bombs up and down the left-hand side. Yannick Gerhardt reveals the Germany U21s’ special motto and discusses the final in Krakow.
DFB.de: Yannick Gerhardt, can you describe the 120 minutes plus penalties against England from your perspective?
Yannick Gerhardt: We played well save for the first 20 minutes, and dominated our opponents. We deserved to take the lead, but unfortunately conceded the equaliser when I unfortunately slipped at the wrong moment. England made it 2-1 from nothing after the half-time whistle and we fought back to level the score through Felix Plattes’ goal. Then we tried to win the game before the 90th and 120th minute marks. A rollercoaster of emotions.
DFB.de: A rollercoaster of emotions that ended in a happy ending for your team.
Gerhardt: Yes, definitely. Even if we did ultimately deserve the win, my penalty was a tough break. I wanted to show that I have what it takes to step up and take responsibility, but under those circumstances it’s hard to ignore your nerves. Luckily all the others scored and Julian Pollersbeck kept out two penalties. Penalties always have a lot to do with luck, although it’s definitely nice to have been able to carry on the German tradition of beating England on penalties (laughs).
DFB.de: So far you’ve played every minute of all four games in the tournament. How would you evaluate your own performances?
Gerhardt: It’s great to have the faith of the coaching staff. It’s not a given that I’d play as much as I have here at the EURO after a long and difficult season with my club, that eventually ended in a successful relegation play-off for us. The best players of our age bracket come up against each other here. I think that I did well in the game, and had some good moments, but sure there were situations in both attack and defence where I could have done better.
DFB.de: More than nine million people watched the semi-final thriller, and the photo of you all celebrating in the locker-room reached more than five million people over social media. How are you handling the euphoria of the Germany U21s making it to the final?
The excitement in the hotel that Germany’s U21s are staying in, in the Polish town of Wieliczka, is practically tangible. The U21 EURO final against Spain awaits them on Friday (20:45 CEST). Stefan Kuntz’s side want to continue putting in great performances, like the one that showed character against England, and win it all. Throughout the tournament so far, Yannick Gerhardt has played in every single game. The 23-year-old VfL Wolfsburg defender hasn’t even missed a single minute as he bombs up and down the left-hand side. Yannick Gerhardt reveals the Germany U21s’ special motto and discusses the final in Krakow.
DFB.de: Yannick Gerhardt, can you describe the 120 minutes plus penalties against England from your perspective?
Yannick Gerhardt: We played well save for the first 20 minutes, and dominated our opponents. We deserved to take the lead, but unfortunately conceded the equaliser when I unfortunately slipped at the wrong moment. England made it 2-1 from nothing after the half-time whistle and we fought back to level the score through Felix Plattes’ goal. Then we tried to win the game before the 90th and 120th minute marks. A rollercoaster of emotions.
DFB.de: A rollercoaster of emotions that ended in a happy ending for your team.
Gerhardt: Yes, definitely. Even if we did ultimately deserve the win, my penalty was a tough break. I wanted to show that I have what it takes to step up and take responsibility, but under those circumstances it’s hard to ignore your nerves. Luckily all the others scored and Julian Pollersbeck kept out two penalties. Penalties always have a lot to do with luck, although it’s definitely nice to have been able to carry on the German tradition of beating England on penalties (laughs).
DFB.de: So far you’ve played every minute of all four games in the tournament. How would you evaluate your own performances?
Gerhardt: It’s great to have the faith of the coaching staff. It’s not a given that I’d play as much as I have here at the EURO after a long and difficult season with my club, that eventually ended in a successful relegation play-off for us. The best players of our age bracket come up against each other here. I think that I did well in the game, and had some good moments, but sure there were situations in both attack and defence where I could have done better.
DFB.de: More than nine million people watched the semi-final thriller, and the photo of you all celebrating in the locker-room reached more than five million people over social media. How are you handling the euphoria of the Germany U21s making it to the final?
Gerhardt: We were unbelievably proud after the reaction the win received back home in Germany. We all received countless messages of praise over social media, and the TV coverage is amazing too. As a young boy you always dream of playing for Germany and receiving such support. It’s also fantastic that the boys at the Confed Cup wished us luck, as we do for them. It’s clear for all to see how the senior team and the U21s mutually support and push each other.
DFB.de: The team began their training camp for the European Championship with the slogan “write your own story” four weeks ago. What sort of genre would you class this story as ?
Gerhardt: (laughs) a thriller, an adventure, a comedy – it has elements of all of these genres. It was a long road to get here. We know that we had some tough tasks ahead of us, and given the format of the tournament we knew that all 12 teams here would be strong. Now we’re in the final and want to give our story a happy ending. It’s already crazy how much chemistry the team have, how the substitutes cheer on and push the starting eleven, how each and every player brings their A-game, whether they’re a starter or a substitute. If we lift the trophy, it’ll be a great send-off for those of us who are playing for the U21 side for the last time.
DFB.de: A tough opponent in the form of Spain awaits you in the final.
Gerhardt: Yes, we’re all aware of that. The Spanish have won all of their games in the tournament so far and have probably been the best team here. They’ve superb individuals who have proved themselves in the Primera Division or in the Champions League. Even if it is a tough game, we wouldn’t have our asked for our final to be any other way. It’ll be a real challenge, but at the end of the day you always want to play the best teams.
DFB.de: How will you approach the final?
Gerhardt: We’ll analyse everything in detail tonight and tomorrow at our meeting on the opponents. We have to surprise the Spaniards by playing with courage up front and taking our chances. We have to be aggressive in defence and break up their passes, or we’ll just be trailing them. Only by ourselves putting the pressure on do we have a chance. Even though it’s a cliché: anything’s possible in this game.
