European Championship qualification: The U21 celebrates two wins against Northern Ireland and Greece

Football coach Antonio Di Salvo now has to go into a kind of standby mode again for six months. The 46-year-old had not had his U21 national team together for four months, then they won 3-0 against Northern Ireland on Friday and 2-0 in Greece on Tuesday – and now they are splitting up again until September.

For selected footballers, it’s always about delivering on time, and nothing else can be said about the German U21s, who have regained top position in their European Championship qualifying group with their last two victories. 51 teams will play in nine groups for 14 tickets to the 2027 U21 European Championship in Serbia and Albania. Just in time for the six-month break, Germany leads Group F (18 points), German striker Nicolo Tresoldi leads the top scorers list (six goals) and German captain Tom Bischof leads the list of assist providers (five assists). “I’m happy,” said Di Salvo on Tuesday evening.

The game in Athens was particularly charged, as the German team had lost the first leg 2-3 and was in danger of having to go into the playoffs as second in the group. A win with a two-goal difference was necessary. “There was pressure on the kettle,” said Di Salvo, describing the situation. “Everything was at stake here,” said striker Saïd El Mala. But the U21s delivered. They won 2-0 with goals from El Mala (11th) and Anton Kade (73rd). For both of them it was their first goal in the U21. For Kade from Augsburg it was a rare header and for El Mala from Cologne it was an even more emotional goal because he found out about his grandmother’s death on Saturday in the middle of the U21 course. He decided to stay – and on Tuesday evening he scored the goal for them. “I hope I made my grandma up there happy with this,” he said afterwards in an interview with Pro7maxx. There was a lot about being happy on Tuesday evening.

The U21 is an oasis of well-being for young footballers

The U21s now need three wins against the three weakest teams in the group (Latvia, Malta, Georgia) in the fall in order to qualify for the European Championships. That doesn’t seem impossible. The many stand-by phases that a U21 coach has are sweetened by many successes for Di Salvo, who was born in Paderborn and lives in Munich. His U21 has only lost two of 29 games in the past two and a half years: the European Championship final in June 2025 (2:3 against England) and the qualifying game against Greece (2:3) last October.

The U21 is an oasis of well-being for young footballers. That doesn’t stop talents like Lennart Karl or Saïd El Mala from being nominated for the senior national team by national coach Julian Nagelsmann. But they have a better chance of playing in a final with the U21s at the European Championships every two years.

For the young El Mala, 19, the news of his grandmother’s death raised the question of whether he would travel home, but he decided to stay with the U21s. “The team picked him up really well,” said coach Di Salvo, not without pride in the emphatic virtues of his squad: “I think it was good for Saïd to stay with us.” El Mala also spoke a lot with team psychologist Helena Schmitz.

And so in every respect it was once again ten successful but also comforting days for coach Di Salvo’s U21s. Many of his players now have to return to their clubs in the Bundesliga relegation battle: El Mala to 1. FC Köln, Mio Backhaus to Werder Bremen, Lukas Ullrich to Borussia Mönchengladbach, Nelson Weiper to 1. FSV Manz 05, Dzenan Pejcinovic to VfL Wolfsburg and Arijon Ibrahimovic to 1. FC Heidenheim. They now have to wait six months to return to the U21 oasis of well-being.