The German national team are finding their form in time for the home European Championship. Thanks to BVB striker Niclas Füllkrug, the DFB team won their friendly against the Netherlands 2-1 (1-1) and thus claimed their second victory in the space of four days. In addition: Julian Ryerson made his return for the Norwegian national team following a two-week absence and Jamie Bynoe-Gittens notched his first goal for the England U21 national team.
On Tuesday evening in Frankfurt, DFB coach Julian Nagelsmann fielded the same line-up that had started the match against France in Lyon on Saturday, meaning Niclas Füllkrug was among the substitutes to begin with. His BVB team-mate Donyell Malen was in the starting line-up for the visitors from the Netherlands. The “Elftal” took the lead through Joey Veerman (4), with Stuttgart’s Maximilian Mittelstädt equalising a short while later (11).
When Donyell Malen was substituted by Dutch boss Ronald Koeman on the 75-minute mark, Niclas Füllkrug had only been on the pitch for two minutes. But his introduction injected further momentum into Germany’s play. The decisive goal was then scored by “Fülle” himself after he headed and shouldered a corner-kick from Toni Kroos over the visitors’ goal line in the 85th minute. It was the 11th time Füllkrug has scored in 15 appearances for the DFB team.
There was set to be another all-Borussia clash in Vienna, but Marcel Sabitzer was unavailable to the Austrian national team at late notice. That meant that only one Black & Yellow, Salih Özcan, was on the pitch at kick-off at the Ernst-Happel-Stadion, where the defensive midfielder and the Türkiye national team suffered a clear 6-1 loss to the hosts. Özcan was substituted after an hour.
Defensive specialist Julian Ryerson recently missed BVB’s Champions League return fixture against Eindhoven and the Bundesliga match against Frankfurt, but the 26-year-old is now back in action. Ryerson occupied his usual position at right-back for the entire 90 minutes of the friendly between Norway and Slovakia (1-1).
In U21 EURO qualification, Jamie Bynoe-Gittens and Youssoufa Moukoko tasted victory with their teams. Bynoe-Gittens, whose England side hosted Luxembourg in Bolton (7-0), was in the starting line-up and scored the goal to make it 3-0 – his first-ever goal for the “Young Lions”. Moukoko was also handed another start for the Germany U21s. The attacker was involved in the action up until the 80th minute and played his part in the 2-0 victory against Israel.
Source: BVB
