Title dream quashed – Nübel and Serdar lose U21 European Championship final against Spain

Napoli player Fabian opened the scoring with a powerful strike, to which Nübel was powerless to, in the seventh minute. The Germany players had a difficult start but eventually came into the game, looking more and more optimistic. The Spaniards had some luck that they had all 11 players playing for the entire game, as a rough challenge from Jesus Vallejo on Luca Waldschmidt saw only a yellow.

After half-time, Stefan Kuntz’s team applied more pressure. Germany were combining well and started to get in some good positions, but unfortunately the next goal in the game was Spain’s. Dani Olmo scored from close-range after Nübel spilled a shot from Fabian (69’). Despite the 2-0 scoreline, the Germans didn’t give up. Despite Nadiem Amiri’s long-range goal (88’) to make it 2-1, the game was destined to be Spain’s.

Both Royal Blues in the starting XI

Nübel played the full 90, as he had done in all four previous games, while Serdar started and came off in the 61^st minute. Florian Neuhaus from Borussia Mönchengladbach came on for him. Schalke was the only team that had two players start the final for Germany U21s.

A small positive for the German youngster: having reached the semi-finals, the side have booked a place in the 2020 Olympic games in Tokyo.