Leon Goretzka called up for Spain and Brazil friendlies

The Royal Blues midfielder has made 12 appearances for Germany to date, scoring six goals. Goretzka’s biggest success in Die Mannschaft colours was the Confed-Cup triumph in Russia last summer.

„Spain and Brazil are tough, but welcome challenges for us to see where we are alongside these top nations,“ said Germany head coach Joachim Löw. „However, for me these games have nothing to do with the results, which ultimately mean nothing except for prestige. I want to see how much passion we put into our jobs and how we perform according to our expectations. I will definitely be trying one or two new things.“ Löw emphasized that he had great respect for the two opponents. „Both Spain and Brazil could win the tournament in Russia this summer,“ told the 58-year-old.

S04 trio in the U21s

Thilo Kehrer, Alexander Nübel and Cedric Teuchert have all been named in the Germany U21s team for their EURO qualifier on Thursday (22.3, 19:00) against Israel in Braunschweig and on Tuesday (27.3, 18:45) against Kosovo in Mitrovica. „We want to defend our lead at the top,“ told Germany head coach Stefan Kuntz ahead of the two matches. After five of ten games, Germany lead Group 5 with 12