Group A: Germany v Denmark preview

• Germany take on Denmark in U21 EURO Group A at the Eden Stadium
• Horst Hrubesch's side without a win in their last four fixtures
• Hrubesch insists there is "no extra pressure" despite Wednesday's draw with Serbia
• Denmark will be assured of a semi-final berth with second group win
• Denmark coach Jess Thorup: "I hope we have learned our lessons"

Qualifying campaign (including play-off)
Germany: P10 W8 D2 L0 F30 A5 (Group 6 winners)
Qualifying top scorer: Philipp Hofmann (7)

Denmark: P10 W8 D2 L0 F37 A9 (Group 2 winners)

Qualifying top scorer: Lasse Vigen Christensen (5)

Form guide (including friendlies, most recent first)
Germany: DLDDW
Denmark: WDWDW

Possible lineups
Germany: Ter Stegen; Korb, Ginter, Knoche, Schulz; Kimmich, Can; Volland, Meyer, Bittencourt; Hofmann
• Out: Günter (suspended)

Denmark: Busk; Scholz, Vestergaard, Christensen, Knudsen; sisto, Thomsen, Christensen, Jønsson; Fischer; Poulsen
• Doubtful: Sørensen (hamstring), Højbjerg (fatigue)

Horst Hrubesch, Germany coach
The plan is easy. We started too slowly in the first match against Serbia and so against Denmark we need to be on our game from the start. We will show our true colours from kick-off. Of course we would have preferred to win the first match, but the important factor is that we still have our destiny in our own hands.

We were handed the status of favourites after the draw. That's nice and I will take it gladly, but we are not so naive. Every team here play at a high level and the first four matches have confirmed that. If you want to reach the semi-finals, you have to fight for survival first.

I will keep the weaknesses of the Danish team to myself, but I can talk about their strengths. They have a compact team with a lot of tall players and are very dangerous at set pieces. Denmark have a few players who stand out, but what matters is how consistent they were throughout the whole 90 minutes in the first match.

Jess Thorup, Denmark coach
I wasn't that satisfied with the first 45 minutes against the Czech Republic, but we ended up winning the game, which is very important. Now, we are meeting maybe the favourites in this tournament. Though they didn't have the best start [on matchday one], I still think they are the favourites. It will be a very difficult match but also one that we are going to look forward to.

After the first 45 minutes against the Czechs we were a bit down, but we ended up winning the game and that raised our morale. We have been in high spirits throughout qualifying and I think that is still the case, if not more so.

We are hoping to start on Saturday like we played in the second half against the Czech Republic. We stood up as a team, we created chances and we closed down the ball. I am hoping we learned some lessons from those first 45 minutes because if we are going to have a chance against Germany we are going to need to be ready from the off.

Senior internationals in squad
Germany: Matthias Ginter (5), Marc-André ter Stegen (4), Kevin Volland (3), Christian Günter (1), Maximilian Arnold (1), Max Meyer (1)

Denmark: Pierre Højbjerg (7), Viktor Fischer (7), Yussuf Poulsen (5), Jannik Vestergaard (3), Uffe Bech (3), Jonas Knudsen (2), Andreas Christensen (2), Riza Durmisi (1), Nicolaj Thomsen (1), Rasmus Falk (1)

Match fact
• How many times have Germany progressed from the group stage in their last nine attempts? Check out our extensive match background to find out — you might be surprised by the answer.