News : Football: German U 21 starts with victory in the European Championship – Sport

Thanks to goal debutant Marco Richter, the German U-21 footballers have brought a clear victory to the European Championship start and made the first step on the way to the intended title defense. The selection of coach Stefan Kuntz sat down on Monday evening in Udine 3-1 (1-0) against Denmark. The Augsburg judge with a double (28th / 52nd minute) and Freiburg's Luca Waldschmidt (65th) scored in front of 7131 spectators the DFB goals. Robert Skov scored by hand penalty still the only goal for the Danes (73).

As with the European Championship triumph in 2017, the German U 21 had to face Denmark in the group stage - and the Scandinavians proved to be an unpleasant opponent. "I expect a better team than two years ago," Kuntz had predicted and was right. Denmark did well, but the DFB team solved the task with flying colors. The man of the match was Richter, who scored his first two goals in the jersey of the German U-21 team in his fifth appearance. The DFB-Elf is now on the first rank of Group B ahead of Austria and can relax looking forward to the duel with Serbia on Thursday. Final opponent is Austria. Only the group winners and the best of the three group thirds move into the semifinals and solve the ticket for the Olympic Games.

At still 25 degrees, the German U 21 was initially difficult to find their rhythm. Denmark had more possession and started some quick moves. Germany looked nervous, the Scandinavians around the Dortmund Jacob Bruun Larsen had more of the game. The first chance for the DFB team missed judge, who shot past the goal (19.).

The DFB juniors were now better in the game, but in the offensive lacked the young team still the ideas. But the first goal of Richter, who finished after a filing by Maximilian Eggestein in the far corner, gave the team security. The German team now controlled the game. After a fine pass from captain Jonathan Tah, Denmark keeper Daniel Iversen deflected Waldschmidt's shot to the corner (40 '). The Danes struggled on the offensive, but hardly came to dangerous actions.

Shortly after the break, Richter took advantage of a capital mistake by the Dane Mads Pedersen, who played too short a back pass, and increased to 2: 0. Iversen prevented another German goal against Benjamin Henrichs (61.) before the DFB offspring knocked out the Danes ice cold: After a Danish corner, Levin Öztunali and Richter moved forward, where Waldschmidt increased with a fine lob. After a hand-play by Timo Baumgartl in the penalty area, Denmark's top striker Skov scored the honorable goal from the point.