Group 7 contenders want finals return

Three of the four sides involved in UEFA European Under-19 Championship elite round Group 7 have recent final experience, although Germany, Turkey and Hungary will all be eager to return having all missed out on last year's tournament. The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, meanwhile, impressively beat the Czech Republic in qualifying.

Germany
Christian Ziege succeeded Ralf Minge as coach on 11 May and the UEFA EURO '96 winner's first task is to guide his new team into the finals for the first time since lifting the trophy in 2008. "We have a challenge in front of us with a very short period in which to try things out, but I have yet to go to a tournament without saying [our aims] are possible," said Ziege. "It will be difficult, but we are working on the team defending together and we will mainly use the remaining time to work on our strength and see where we can improve." Three friendlies in 2011 have brought wins in England (1-0) and at home against Ukraine (3-0) as well as a home defeat by Belgium (1-2).

Qualifying round: Andorra 10-0, Northern Ireland 2-1, Switzerland 2-2 (first in Group 13)

Key players: Marc-André ter Stegen (goalkeeper, VfL Borussia Mönchengladbach), Antonio Rüdiger (defender, VfB Stuttgart), Markus Mendler (midfielder, 1. FC Nürnberg), Reinhold Yabo (midfielder, 1. FC Köln), Lennart Thy (striker, SV Werder Bremen)

Hungary
Semi-finalists in 2008, Hungary have played four preparatory friendlies, going down 2-1 at home to Israel before a 1-1 draw against the same opponents, subsequently defeating Finland 2-1 and 3-2. "We're not the group favourites so we will not play under pressure," said coach László Szepessy. "We'll look to spring a surprise with a good performance."

Qualifying round: Moldova 0-1, Finland 1-0, Poland 2-0 (first in Group 6)

Key players: Csaba Ponczók (midfielder, Vasas SC), István Kovács (midfielder, Szombathelyi Haladás), Máté Skriba (midfielder, MTK Budapest)

Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
Dragan Bočevski's side are in the elite round for the third time, although the coach is remaining realistic, saying: "The group is very tough and every single victory will be another big success for us." FYROM have won only one of their seven preparatory friendlies, defeating finals hosts Romania 4-0 in March; otherwise there were defeats by Greece (1-2, 0-3), Romania again (1-2), Poland (0-2) and Italy (0-3) in addition to a goalless draw against the Poles. "The results were not our priority but we wanted to prepare the team to face high-class opponents," Bočevski explained. "Qualifying for this round is already a great achievement."

Qualifying round: Czech Republic 1-0, Belarus 0-3,  Bosnia and Herzegovina 1-1 (second in Group 5)

Key players: Stefan Ristovski (midfielder, Parma FC), Dino Najdoski (defender, AC Bellinzona), Aleksandar Trajkovski (forward, NK Inter Zaprešic), Stefan Ashkovski (midfielder, FK Partizan)

Turkey
Turkey lost 3-0 at home to Italy in January before a 3-0 victory and 3-3 draw against Montenegro in March. "We're satisfied with the performance of our players over the last year," said coach Kemal Özdeş. "Our domestic-based players got many chances to play for their clubs' senior teams; including reserve matches lots have played 25 games, which was a target for us. The second target is to qualify and we're capable of doing that, but the most important target is to breed players with good character for the future of Turkish football."

Qualifying round: Wales 3-3, Kazakhstan 5-1, Iceland 2-1 (first in Group 1)

Key players: Muhammet Demir (midfielder, Gaziantepspor), Orhan Gülle (midfielder, Gaziantepspor), Engin Bekdemir (Kayserispor), Nadir Çiftçi (forward, Portsmouth FC)