U21s want to round off perfect qualification campaign

The most wins, the most goals and they haven’t conceded away. The Germany U21s keep on getting better. Even though they have already secured their place in the European Championship finals, Stefan Kuntz’s side will face Austria tonight at 18:00 CEST in St Pölten. They will want to win the match in order to complete their perfect qualification campaign. DFB.de has summed up all the important facts ahead of the match.

QUALIFICATION FOR THE FINALS: The Germany U21 team secured their place in the 2017 European Championship finals in 2017 with their 4-3 win over Russia in Ingolstadt. Stefan Kuntz’s team have won all nine games so far, but they want to complete a perfect qualification campaign by winning their tenth and final group fixture. Hosts Poland, Czech Republic, Portugal, Denmark, Slovakia and England have also secured their place in the finals. Austria are safe in second place with 22 points. They will qualify for the play-off round for the European Championship finals no matter what the result against Germany is.

RECORD HUNTERS: The Germany U21 team have set a new record for the number of consecutive victories, winning all of their last 11 fixtures. The last time they lost was on 27th June 2015 against Portugal 5-0 in the European Championship semi-final. Since then, Germany have scored in all of their last 11 fixtures, more than once in ten of those matches. Germany have scored before half-time in all of their last 10 matches. Their record in the European Championship qualification is even more impressive. The U21 side are unbeaten in 33 qualifying fixtures (28 wins, 5 draws) and have scored 108 goals. They only need to win one more match to beat the record of 10 straight competitive wins set by Rainer Adrion’s team between September 2010 and September 2012. Their last defeat in a European Championship qualifying fixture came on 11th August 2010 when the team lost 4-1 to Iceland. The U21s have scored in the last 41 qualifying fixtures. The last time they failed to score was in the 0-0 draw to Israel on 9th September 2008.

GOALS, GOALS, GOALS: The 4-3 win over Russia was the highest scoring game of the last two years for the Germany U21s. Their biggest win came on 9th September 2014 when they beat Romania 8-0 in a European Championship qualifier. Maximilian Arnold scored a brace against Russia on Friday, as many goals as he has scored in his last 12 appearances for the U21 side.

UNBEATEN AGAINST AUSTRIA: The Germany U21 hold an unbeaten record against Austria. They have never lost a single match against Austria, but have won all of the last 9 meetings between the two sides. Germany have only won more fixtures without losing against Switzerland. But Austria managed to get a 1-1 draw against Germany in a European Championship qualifier on 26th April 1983 in St. Pölten. Germany have conceded four goals in the last two meetings with Austria.

KUNTZ’S GOOD FORM: Stefan Kuntz has won his first three game as U21 head coach and is just one win away from beating Dieter Eilt’s record of winning the first four opening fixtures..

KEEPING IT TIGHT AT THE BACK: The Germany U21 team haven’t conceded an away goal yet in any of their European Championship qualifying fixtures. Germany have kept a clean sheet in all of their last four away matches, a new record.

ALL GOOD THINGS COME IN THREES: Germany won the U21 European Championship in 2009 and have now qualified for the tournament for the eleventh time. The Germany U21s have qualified for the tournament for the third time in a row. Austria could qualify for the U21 European Championships for the first time. The team came top of their qualifying group only once in 2009 but were knocked out by Finland later in the tournament by losing on penalties.

LUCKY DAY IN OCTOBER: The Germany U21s have won all three of their matches that have fell on the 11th October, one of those being the 3-0 win over Austria in Sankt Veit in 2005. Now that has to be a good omen…

LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON: Austria U21 head coach Werner Gregoritsch came through the Grazer AK youth academy, where he was active as both a player and a coach. He has been head coach of the Austria U21 side since 2012. His son Michael, who currently plays for Hamburger SV, is part of the Austria U21 squad. He holds the goal scoring record of 20 goals in 28 matches. Czech Republic’s Patrik Schick is the only player to have scored more goals (10) in a European Championship qualification campaign. Gregoritsch, however, has now been called up to the Austria first team squad.

FAMILIAR FACES: Lukas Gugganig (Greuther Fürth), Philipp Mwene (Kaiserslautern), Ylli Sallahi (Karlsruhe), Florian Grillitsch (Bremen) and Dominik Wydra (Bochum) are all part of the Austria U21 squad to face Germany. Christoph Martschinko signed for TSG 1899 Hoffenheim in 2015 but was sent out on loan to FK Austria Wien where he signed a permanent deal in summer 2016.