Germany U21 3-0 France U21: Early goals enough to send Germany to U21 Euros final | OneFootball

After hard-fought quarter-final games a few days ago, both Germany and France U21 coaches decided to make some changes to their lineups. Ansgar Knauff and Nelson Weiper benefited from Antonio Di Salvo’s decision as they replaced Brajan Gruda and Nicolò Tresoldi in Germany’s attack.

Gérald Baticle also makes three changes from the XI that started the comeback win against Denmark. But, it’s one of Germany’s new players in the XI that scored the opening goal of the match.

Guillaume Restes made a good save from Paul Nebel in the eighth minute, but his Mainz teammate Weiper reacted the fastest to score for the third game running from the rebound. The man of the hour, Nick Woltemade, started the move before scoring his sixth goal of the tournament six minutes later.

Once again, Restes made a decent save from Woltemade’s initial attempt, but the Stuttgart striker had all the time in the world to score Germany’s second from another rebound. With the absence of influential captain Chrislain Matsima, France’s defense made too many mistakes in the opening 15 minutes of the game.

Germany also had to deal with Max Rosenfelder’s early substitution due to an injury, but Tim Oermann showed that he can deputize for the Freiburg center-back. France did recover from the sloppy start, while Germany were happy to take the two-goal lead into the half-time break.

Djaoui Cissé and Wilson Odobert had shots on target, but Noah Atubolu was hardly troubled on both occasions. Baticle started the second-half with his first substitution as he brought Thierno Barry in place of Matthis Abline, and the sought-after striker only needed less than thirty seconds to fashion his first big chance.

However, Germany managed to limit France’s strength as Di Salvo’s side even had the next two big chances of the game through Weiper. The Mainz forward and Woltemade combined very well throughout the match, despite it being the first time they both started together in the tournament.

When France came close to reducing the deficit in the 67th minute, Barry was once again at the center of it. The Villareal striker’s header was cleared on the goalline by the brilliant Atubolu. On the other end, Woltemade regretted missing an absolute sitter after a pinpoint cross from Gruda.

The Brighton midfielder was subbed on alongside Merlin Röhl, the matchwinner in the quarter-final. He also had a great chance to seal the victory here when Restes denied him in a one-on-one chance.

France woke up after the 90th minute with Barry (who else?) continuing to be a threat as his header rebounded off the woodwork in their best chance of the game. Moments later, substitute Jamil Siebert made a brilliant challenge to intercept a promising attack.

And that allowed Germany to wrap it up after a long VAR check allowed Gruda’s goal. Paul Wanner played him through with a brilliant assist as Woltemade was once again at the thick of the action.

Germany will face the defending champions, England, in the final on Saturday. The two teams had earlier met in the group stage when Di Salvo made a complete team change and still won the game 2-1.