German U21s come up empty in Romania
Antonio di Salvo's Germany U21 squad were able to create little in their final friendly before this coming summer's UEFA U21 European Championship. The DFB Juniors travelled to Romania to meet the tournament co-hosts. A bland 0-0 draw was the result.
| Noah Atubolu. | Photo: SC Freiburg |
Di Salvo opted to make four changes to the XI that drew Japan 2-2 on Friday. SC Freiburg's Noah Weißhaupt took the place of Eintracht Frankfurt's Faride Alidou on the right attacking flank. Hoffenheim's Angelo Stiller took the place of Schalke's Tom Krauß in midfield. Fullbacks Kilian Fischer of VfL Wolfsburg and Noah Katterbach of Hamburger SV were swapped out for Gladbach's Luca Netz and Köln's Eric Martel.
The German guests found themselves out-of-sync in the attack during the scrappy opening phases. Their Romanian hosts pressed courageously and broke up the DFB-XI's flow very effectively. Netz, Jessic Ngankam and squad captain Yannick Keitel were only able to get some tame efforts in during the first 25 minutes. There were also some disorganized defensive moments in the German penalty area, though they produced no real danger.
DFB net-minder Noah Atubolu had to be on point to save one close-range effort in the 33rd. Apart from that, the first half concluded with neither side able to generate memorable chances. Di Salvo's crew continued to struggle in finding the gaps after the restart. Stiller regrettably missed the best chance of the game in the 55th, heading a Weißhaupt cross over the bar.
Matters got a little sloppy around the hour-mark. SFB actors Stiller and Jordan Beyer both committed bad turnovers which the Romanians were nevertheless were unable to punish. Atubolu had to make another strong save following a Stiller mistake in the 76th Offensively, the DFB Juniors found themselves consistently frustrated. Multiple shots and crosses into the box were repelled.
Six offensively minded German subs were unable to make much of a difference. Di Salvo's Juniors couldn't transform possession into legitimate scoring opportunities. Through five full minutes of injury time, nothing more of any note occurred. No one could question the fair nature of the final scoreline.
