England v Germany facts and stats
Sunday, June 25, 2017
Article summary
England and Germany will add another chapter to a long history of rivalry at U21 level when they meet at the Tychy Stadium on Tuesday for the right to contest the 2017 final.
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England will go into their U21 EURO semi-final against Germany boasting a better head-to-head record but lagging behind in tournament encounters – with Germany having notably swept their rivals aside in the 2009 final to clinch their sole title at this level.
Previous meetings
• The teams have played ten competitive fixtures at U21 level, with Germany registering two wins to England's four.
• England have not lost any of the teams' six U21 EURO qualifying fixtures, winning three and drawing three.
• England recorded a 3-0 aggregate win in the play-offs ahead of the 2007 tournament. Leighton Baines' goal gave England a 1-0 lead to take into the second leg in Germany, where Theo Walcott struck twice to progress to the final tournament at their opponents' expense.
• However, in final tournament meetings, Germany have the edge. In four matches, Germany have registered two wins to England's one.
• Their most recent tournament meeting came in the 2009 final in Malmo, Sweden. Gonzalo Castro (23), Mesut Özil (48) and Sandro Wagner (79 84) got the goals in a 4-0 victory for Horst Hrubesch's side.
• The line-ups for that game, on 29 June 2009, were:
England: Loach; Cranie (Gardner 79), Richards, Onuoha (Mancienne 46), Gibbs; Cattermole, Muamba (Rodwell 78), Noble; Milner, Johnson; Walcott.
Germany: Neuer; Beck, Höwedes, Boateng, Boenisch; Hummels (Aogo 83); Johnson (Schwaab 69), Castro, Khedira, Özil (Schmelzer 89); Wagner.
• The teams had also previously met in the group stage in Sweden, playing out a 1-1 draw.
• England triumphed 5-4 on aggregate in the two-legged final in 1982. After a 3-1 win at Bramall Lane in late September, England clung on in the return in Bremen in mid-October despite a Pierre Littbarski hat-trick giving Germany a 3-2 victory.
• Their most recent meeting came in a friendly on 24 March this year in Wiesbaden, where Nadiem Amiri's 23rd-minute goal gave Germany a 1-0 win.
• The line-ups for that game were:
Germany: Pollersbeck (Schwäbe 46); Jung, Stark, Kempf; Weiser (Toljan 39), Amiri (Öztunali 46), Ginter, Arnold (Philipp 68), Gerhardt; Meyer (Haberer 68), Selke (Kehrer 86).
England: Pickford; Holgate, Stephens, Mawson, Chilwell; Chalobah, Baker; Gray (Loftus-Cheek 58), Murphy, Winks (Swift 72); Abraham.
• Eight of that Germany starting XI have also started every game at the finals in Poland. Gideon Jung has come on as a substitute in all three matches, while Amiri has come off the bench twice. From that side, only Matthias Ginter is not with this finals squad. Ten of the 13 players involved for England that day are also in Poland.
Match background
England
• England are looking for a third European title after back-to-back triumphs in 1982 and 1984.
• This is England's ninth semi-final at U21 level and their record reads: W3 L5.
• Knocked out in the group stage at each of their last three U21 EURO tournaments, England reached the last four this time as Group A winners. They drew with Sweden (0-0) before beating Slovakia (2-1) and Poland (3-0).
Germany
• Germany have only lifted the European U21 trophy on one occasion, when they beat England in the 2009 final.
• Germany lost 5-0 to Portugal at this stage in 2015 and have contested three semi-finals overall with a record of W2 L1, including their 1982 appearance as West Germany. Meanwhile, East Germany won the two semi-finals they contested, in 1978 and 1980.
• Germany have appeared in five of the last seven tournaments, yet survived the group stage in only 2009 and 2015 prior to this year.
• They reached this semi-final as the best of the three section runners-up, having finished second behind Italy in Group C after beating the Czech Republic (2-0) and Denmark (3-0) before losing to the Azzurrini (0-1).
Coach and player links
• Stefan Kuntz was only involved in one international match against England, but it was arguably the biggest game of his career. He hit the equalising goal (16) after Alan Shearer's early strike (3) and later converted a spot kick in Germany's penalty shoot-out win during the EURO '96 semi-finals.
• Mahmoud Dahoud and substitute Amiri played for Germany's U19s in a 1-1 friendly draw against an England side including Ben Chilwell, Angus Gunn and substitute Demarai Gray in September 2014.
• Yannick Gerhardt, Odisseas Vlachodimos and Dominik Kohr started for Germany's U19s in a 3-1 win in Lubeck in September 2012 against an England side including Jordan Pickford, Nathaniel Chalobah and James Ward-Prowse. Nathan Redmond came off the bench.
• Vlachodimos and Mitchell Weiser featured for Germany in a 3-2 victory against the England of Pickford, Chalobah and substitute Redmond in the quarter-finals of the FIFA U-17 World Cup in July 2011.
• Aidy Boothroyd was England's U19 coach for a 3-2 friendly win against Germany in September 2015. Tammy Abraham came off the bench for England.
• Serge Gnabry started for Arsenal in a 2-2 Premier League draw with Southampton in January 2014; Ward-Prowse came on as a substitute for Saints.
Coach profiles
Aidy Bothroyd, England
A lower-league defender whose longest spell came with Mansfield Town, Boothroyd went into coaching in 1998 with the junior teams at Peterborough. Stints in the youth ranks of Norwich City and West Bromwich Albion followed before he stepped up to become first-team coach at Leeds United in 2004.
Boothroyd's first managerial appointment arrived a year later, when he took the Watford reins aged 34. He guided the Hornets into the Premier League in his first full season, 2005/06, but left in 2008 with the club back in the Championship. Shorter stays with Colchester United, Coventry City and, from 2011–13, Northampton Town then ensued. Opportunity knocked with England's youth set-up in February 2014, and he eventually became U21 coach in October 2016 following Gareth Southgate's promotion to the senior job.
Stefan Kuntz, Germany
An influential figure wherever he played, Kuntz was most successful during a six-year spell at Kaiserslautern, where he lifted two trophies – the 1990/91 Bundesliga and 1989/90 German Cup – while also being named Germany's footballer of the year for 1991. Twice top scorer in the Bundesliga, he nonetheless had just a short, four-year international career – though that did incorporate victory at EURO '96.
His coaching career began in the lower leagues and Kuntz has still never managed a team higher than the 2. Bundesliga. After five years at four different clubs, he moved up to become general manager at Koblenz and later Bochum. Then, following an eight-year stint as Kaiserslautern CEO, Kuntz succeeded Horst Hrubesch as Germany U21 boss.