Germany U21 vs Denmark U21 Predictions

Will the defending champions Germany put up a better defence of their title than the senior side did at the 2018 World Cup? Germany are well fancied to challenge for glory again this year, having put together another talented young side ahead of this trip to Italy. Given the relentless production line of German football, it’s hard to back against them going all the way in this tournament. However, can Denmark find a way to spoil Germany’s return to the Euros?

The champions are coming into this clash looking to follow up 2017, which was a banner year for German football. They sent their young squad to the Confederations Cup in Russia and won that, while their backup under 21 side came to the Euros and saw off the cream of the continent’s youth. That was a stark warning to the world about the depth of German football. While the warning wasn’t followed up in Russia 12 months later, they still have an impressive reputation when it comes to developing talent.

Denmark have had two outstanding Under 21 campaigns, making the semi-finals of the Euros in 1992 and 2015. Many of those young talents from four years ago are now playing for the first team, a group who are one of the many to outperform Germany at the previous World Cup. Two years ago Denmark returned to the European Championship finals and went out in the group stage, so they don’t have the consistency of Germany. However, can Denmark get the better of them on their day?

The worry for the Danes is how they struggled to match many of Europe’s best teams in recent meetings. Not only did they lose to Poland in qualifying, but they have been beaten by Spain, England and Croatia in their last five games. They were hammered 4-1 by Spain and 5-1 by England, losses which show the gap between them and the top teams at this age group.

Meanwhile, Germany went all the way two years ago and they’ve been impressive on their way to Italy. They head into this clash with seven wins in eight, while we expect them to add to that. In their last four games, they’ve met England, France, Italy and Holland and they’ve won that string of matches by an aggregate score of 9-4. We expect them to follow up that impressive run by starting with a victory.