Germany crushed Denmark 3-0 at Eden Arena in Prague to take control of Group A in the European Under-21 Championship.
A brace from captain Kevin Volland and Matthias Ginter’s header gave Die Mannschaft a well-earned victory as they outclassed Jess Thorup’s side to move to the top of their group and drop Denmark into second place.
The Danes started brightly and pressured the German defence into several mistakes, but they went unpunished as Jonas Knudsen and Jens Jonsson failed to find the target.
Leonardo Bittencourt missed a gilt-edged chance at the other end after sublime play from Volland in the build-up and almost instantly a swift Danish counter saw Yussuf Poulsen next to lack composure.
Despite the Danish looking the more threatening, it was Germany’s Amin Younes who came within inches of opening the scoring with a wonderful curling effort from outside the box.
The deadlock was broken in style just after the half-hour mark as Emre Can produced a perfect defence splitting pass that found Volland in full stride before the captain calmly slotted home under the keeper.
Horst Hrubesch’s side were beginning to hit their stride and enjoyed much success down the left flank through Younes and Nico Schulz. Inevitably, the advantage was doubled shortly after the break and it was Volland once again. He stepped up to guide a fantastic 30-yard free-kick over the wall and into the corner of the net.
The third goal came within minutes, once again Younes was the creator on the left and Ginter was in the right place to head home from close range. Younes was inspirational and caused constant havoc, he should have picked up another assist however Max Meyer’s shot struck the outside of the post.
Both sides continued to create opportunities but were constantly let down by wayward finishing, although goalkeeper Jakob Busk showed brilliant reactions to deny Volland his hat-trick. Busk prevented Meyer at the death with another strong save to keep the score at three after another swift German counter-attack caught out the Danish defence.
