While Lennart Grill started on the bench, Florian Wirtz was in the starting eleven for the Germany U21 side at the MOL Arena in Szekesfehervar. The team under coach Stefan Kuntz took control of the game from the start but were unable to convert their apparent dominance into goals. The Danes were compact and they had the best chance of the first half in added time through Jacob Brun Larsen.
Denmark continued to pose problems in counter-attacks after the restart and Germany too often lost the ball going forwards. It was no surprise that the neighbours from the North scored the opening goal on 69 minutes through Wahid Faghir. For a long time it looked like that would be the winner for the team coached by Albert Capellas but Stefan Kuntz produced the magic touch in the closing stages. Central defender Lars Lukas Mai, who replaced Florian Wirtz on 87 minutes, headed on a corner from Arne Maier and Lukas Nmecha turned the ball over the line at the far post to make it 1-1 (88').
There was extra time full of end-to-end action. First Jonathan Burkardt was able to head home a cross from David Raum to give Germany a 2-1 lead (100') but the Denmark captain Victor Nelsson levelled from the penalty spot eight minutes later. The match went to penalties as Burkardt could only hit the woodwork with two minutes to play.
Germany had the edge in the penalty shootout. The Mainz 05 keeper Finn Dahmen saved two penalties. The victory takes the Germany team through to a semi-final against the Netherlands on Thursday, 3 June with the kick off at 21.00 CEST. The Oranje beat France 2-1 in their quarter-final.
The junior team of the World Cup winners looked in good shape for a long time in Budapest. From a Moussa Diaby corner, the Leipzig player Dayot Upamecano was able to head France into the lead on 23 minutes. However, the Dutch side grew stronger after the restart and levelled on 50 minutes through Myron Boadu. Diaby was substituted ten minutes later and the French team were hit by a knockout blow just before the end of the game. Boadu scored again to put Diaby and Co. out of the competition.
Two keepers, lots of questions: Werkself captain Lukas Hradecky and U19 goalkeeper Jesper Schlich visited the BarmeniaGothaer children’s press conference in partnership with the Bayer 04 Lions Club on Wednesday afternoon. The duo faced interesting and at times unusual questions from around 50 inquisitive young journalists in the press conference room at the BayArena.
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A large number of sporting directors and officials from big clubs across Europe came to the BayArena on Tuesday for the second seminar in the UEFA Sporting Director Programme (SDP) in cooperation with the ECA.
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Full-back Janou Levels will leave Bayer 04 Leverkusen at the end of the season. The 24-year-old has activated her release clause and she will join Bundesliga rivals VfL Wolfsburg. She has signed a three-year contract.
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After returning from Hamburg and a day off on Easter Monday, the Werkself players were back on the training ground at the BayArena on Tuesday morning. Following the session, Amine Adli was very positive in a media interview about the remaining four matches including the forthcoming home game against FC Augsburg (Saturday, 26 April, 15:30 CEST): "We will give our all to end the season as well as we can!"
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