Germany U21 vs Portugal U21 Predictions

• Portugal have won their last 12 Under-21 Championship games.
• Germany have conceded at least one goal in four of their last six matches.
• Portugal have won the last three head-to-head meetings with Germany at U21 level – all to nil.

Portugal can prosper against Germans’ high defensive line

The streamlining of this tournament has helped to prolong the high quality of football that both Germany U21 and Portugal U21 have produced in abundance.

Past finalists have played four games in less than a fortnight prior to facing off and the fatigue in their young legs has often led to disappointing denouements.

There have been only four goals in the last three finals, but the prospects for a more intense and entertaining affair on Sunday look good because of the long break between the group phase and the knockout games.

Portugal possess better form and have arguably taken a tougher path to the final after ousting Italy 5-3 AET in the quarters and ending Spain’s defence in the last four.

They look to be a talented, cohesive and confident squad with no obvious weakness to exploit if coach Rui Jorge gets his selection right.

He was almost made to regret playing without a defensive midfielder when Italy stormed back from 3-1 down to take the quarter-final to extra-time, but rightly restored balance in the semi against Spain.

Germany made a brilliant start to their semi-final win over the Dutch by scoring after 29 seconds, but they won’t find anything as easy against a well-drilled Portuguese line-up.

The Esperanças have kept clean sheets in four of their five finals games and have a solid platform to take the game to Germany on Sunday.

Germany have star quality too – and a great team spirit – but they tend to play a high line at the back that will be open to exploitation by Portugal’s pacy forwards.

We cannot believe Portugal are the underdogs in the 90 minutes betting and will take them to win without the need for extra-time and penalties.

If Portugal get the first goal, Germany will be required to gamble even more and that could lead to a greater margin of victory so we are recommending a 3-0 play on the correct score market.