Germany could have broken the deadlock with the amount of chances they had but the Italians ended up taking the lead with their first attack in the 77th minute. Dominik Reimann saved well to begin with but the rebound struck the Gino Fechner on the hand. Referee Alejandro Hernandez blew for a penalty and Federico Dimarco stepped up to convert it confidently.
The Germany U19s continued to show their character as they continued to find a way through. The chance to equalise fell to Henrichs in the closing stages but Meret made sure Italy didn’t let their lead slip.
The Germany U19s will continue in the tournament on Thursday (19:30 CEST) against Portugal, who will face Austria in their opening Group A match at 19:00 CEST tonight.
Germany’s rising stars suffered an unfortunate 1-0 defeat against Italy in their first match of the European U19 Championship in Baden-Württemberg. Guido Streichsbier’s side put in a convincing performance in front of 50,000 spectators in the sold out Mercedes-Benz-Arena in Stuttgart. Italy’s goalkeeper Alex Meret denied the highly impressive Germany outfit with half a dozen good saves throughout the 90 minutes. Italy were given a penalty for handball following their first shot on goal 14 minutes before time and Federico Dimarco stepped up to convert from 12 yards and give the Squadra Azzurra the win.
“We are obviously disappointed,” said Streichsbier. “We lost our concentration once and paid for it heavily. It hurts. The team played brilliantly but it’s only goals that count in our sport. We now have three days to dust ourselves down and go again. We have to build the team back up and work on two or three things that didn’t go that well. We have to accept that we need to do some things better at the highest level.”
Benedikt Gimber also found the result hard to take: “It is unbelievably disappointing because we dominated Italy for 90 minutes,” said the captain, who continued: “Italy scored with their only chance. The one thing we can blame ourselves for is not scoring. Other than that we were outstanding. The hope that we can progress is still there. If we win both matches we’ll go further in the tournament.”
The battle with Italy’s goalkeeper
Germany were in control from the very beginning and progressed towards the opponents goal with their high-tempo passing game. Janni-Luca Serra had the first real chance of the match after Benjamin Henrichs had fired a warning shot in the 6th minute. Serra found himself with a free header as he latched onto a Max Besuschkow corner four yards out but his effort was an inch wide of the left post.
The Germans’ duel with Italy’s goalkeeper began in the 14th minute. Ochs’ solo run down the right brought him in front of goal 14 metres out, where he let fly with his left foot but Meret was on hand to push the ball around the post. Serra was the next to try barely a minute later from a Besuschkow free kick. The Dortmund attacker headed the ball powerfully at goal and many of the fans in the stadium were about to celebrate but Meret managed to keep the game level with a sharp reflex save.
It continued to be a game with only one direction. Italy defended and waited in vain for a chance to counter. Ochs tried with a volley from 17 metres and Serra forced another save from Italy’s star man from Udinese Calcio. There wasn’t any more chances of note before the break but that quickly changed after the restart.
Serra and Teubert denied by Meret
Besuschkow called Meret into action four minutes into the second half. Germany began to box Italy into their own penalty area. A sharp pass from Besuschkow was cut out by Filippo Romagna just ahead of Ochs in the 55th minute and Serra used his aerial presence once again from the resulting corner but his header at goal was kept out by Meret.
Streichsbier brought on Cedric Teuchert for Serra to give Germany some fresh legs in attack and he made an impact straight away with a shot from a tight angle, but Meret was once again up to the task. The DFB team were not discouraged and pushed on. Besuschkow played the ball masterfully through for Teuchert who made the shots on goal ratio between the two teams 12:0 in the 73rd minute.
Italy take the lead with their first attack
Germany could have broken the deadlock with the amount of chances they had but the Italians ended up taking the lead with their first attack in the 77th minute. Dominik Reimann saved well to begin with but the rebound struck the Gino Fechner on the hand. Referee Alejandro Hernandez blew for a penalty and Federico Dimarco stepped up to convert it confidently.
The Germany U19s continued to show their character as they continued to find a way through. The chance to equalise fell to Henrichs in the closing stages but Meret made sure Italy didn’t let their lead slip.
The Germany U19s will continue in the tournament on Thursday (19:30 CEST) against Portugal, who will face Austria in their opening Group A match at 19:00 CEST tonight.
