DFB juniors
U21 sobered after knockout – Stiller: “Not brave, without heart”
Nelson Weiper (l) was completely served after the EM was eliminated from the U21 selection. photo
© Sebastian Kahnert/dpa
With Germany’s U21s, the disappointment after the early end of the European Championship is great. Angelo Stiller speaks of a missing heart, coach Antonio Di Salvo asks the question of quality.
“Obviously I’m extremely disappointed.” After the last three finals in a row, his team was eliminated from the preliminary round of the European Championship at the tournament in Georgia and Romania for the first time since 2013.
Hard self-criticism of the players
The players also expressed harsh self-criticism after the miserable tournament with only one point from three games. “I don’t know if we had enough courage. If you look at the game, it definitely wasn’t courageous, it wasn’t heartfelt. There has to be more,” said midfielder Angelo Stiller.
Team-mate Yannik Keitel admitted: “We definitely have to take a good look at ourselves and get more points. I don’t know whether that’s the sporting quality. It was just missing at one end or the other.”
After an unfortunate 1-1 draw against Israel and a bitter 2-1 draw against the Czech Republic, the German selection was clearly the inferior team in the decisive group match against England. “There was a difference in quality today, you could see that brutally,” admitted Tom Krauss. Di Salvo also admitted: “If you don’t score goals and concede goals, it’s ultimately about quality that was missing.”