The Germany U21 national team start their preparations for this summer’s European Championships in Poland with some tough tests. Stefan Kuntz’s side will take on England at the Brita Arena in Wiesbaden on 24th March before then travelling to the Gazi-Stadion in Stuttgart to take on Portugal.
The squad includes SC Freiburg’s Marc-Oliver Kempf, who became a European Champion under Marcus Sorg with the U19s in 2014. The team will be further strengthened by the likes of Leon Goretzka (Schalke 04), Max Meyer (Schalke 04), Yannick Gerhardt (VfL Wolfsburg), Benjamin Henrichs (Bayer Leverkusen) and Serge Gnabry (Werder Bremen), all five of whom have recently featured for the first team.
Kuntz: “The quality speaks for itself”
DFB sporting director Horst Hrubesch says, “We have a huge amount of potential among these extraordinary talents in Germany. The bond between the coach and the U21s is therefore very important. We’ve thought about which players it makes sense to call up as we start to look ahead to the tournament in the summer.”
U21 head coach Stefan Kuntz said, “We are expecting two favourites for the tournament in England and Portugal so it was very important to me to go into these two games mostly with players who are going to be able to be successful at the European Championships this summer. The quality speaks for itself even though there are a few players who may be playing for the main team. For us, it’s now about trying out certain things, getting ready for the tournament and developing as a team.”