Kevin Schade shines as Germany U21s demolish Hungary 5-1
New Germany U21 head coach Antonio di Salvo's away debut on Tuesday evening proved a success.
The country's top youth level team sits five points clear ahead of it's UEFA 2023 European Championship qualifying group after a 5-1 win over Hungary at the Szent Gellert Forum in Szeged.
SC Freiburg striker Kevin Schade captured a scorer's brace also bagged two assists in the romp.
The country's top youth level team sits five points clear ahead of it's UEFA 2023 European Championship qualifying group after a 5-1 win over Hungary at the Szent Gellert Forum in Szeged.
SC Freiburg striker Kevin Schade captured a scorer's brace also bagged two assists in the romp.
In just his second match in charge of the DFB's top Juniors since taking over for Stefan Kuntz, Antonio di Salvo made just one change to the XI that completed a stunning comeback victory over Israel on Thursday. FC Köln's Noah Katterbach was preferred to Borussia Mönchengladbach's Luca Netz at the left fullback position.
The young Freiburg talent Schade immediately made a statement of intent with an excellent sprint up his right flank in the 2nd minute. Though Shuranov and midfielder Angelo Stiller weren't able to manufacture a goal out of the clear chance, a Hungarian defensive error gifted three minutes later gifted Schade himself an easy finish off a rebound. The German guests went up 1-0 in the 5th.
The hosts responded with some of their own creative energy attack-wise. Di Salvo's back-four repeatedly cleared their lines well. Meanwhile, the German attack floundered somewhat for an extended period after the goal. Little happened chance-wise until Schade, Yannick Keitel, and Jean-Manuel Mbom got some things going on the right-hand-side shortly before the half-hour mark.
It was actually Jonathan Burkhardt who broke through in the 32nd. The Mainz striker's pass back missed Nürnberg's Erik Shuranov, but Schade was able to collect and set up Tillman for the second goal. For a time, it looked as di Salvo's youths were destined to head into the locker room up by further goals. The hosts nevertheless pulled one back against the run of play off a set-piece in the 39th.
More Hungarian defensive coordination issues led to an own-goal eight minutes after the restart. This more or less served to decide matters. Zoltan Gera's squad looked deflated afterwards. Some positively spectacular solo-work from Schade enabled substitute Krauß to add a fourth goal in the 66th. Both trainers used all of their subs up in the time remaining.
Among those appearing for Germany were Armel Bella Kotchap (VfL Bochum), Louis Jordan Beyer (Gladbach), Malick Thiaw (Schalke), and recent recipient of youth rank promotion Ansgar Knauff (Dortmund). It was nevertheless three starters (Stiller, Burkhardt, and Schade) who combined to scored the fifth goal in the 90th. Schade smacked home a Burkhardt rebound off the post.
The 19-year-old Freiburg talent, who recently professed his excitement and full commitment to play for Germany, thus finished with a double-brace of two goals and two assists.