Germany U21 v Serbia U21
Thursday 20th June 2000hrs
Football – International – UEFA U21 Championship
Pick Over 2.5 goals
Bookmaker Unibet
Odds: 4/6 (odds taken 20.15 GMT, Wednesday 19th June)
Germany are the defending UEFA U21 champions and picked up where they left off in the opening round. Serbia struggled against Austria and will need a massive performance to prevent them from being eliminated.
UEFA U21 Championship Betting at Unibet
Germany U21 Preview – Will Germany follow-up impressive win against Denmark?
It was something of a surprise when Germany defeated Spain in the final two years ago. Whilst the Germans have a phenomenal record at senior level, they have only ever won this competition on two occasions. Going into the final against the Spanish a couple of years ago they were second favourites but in typical German fashion they found a way to win. Stefan Kuntz remains in charge and is now looking to do something his nation have ever done and win the tournament in consecutive runnings. It’s been a solid start to this competition, too, winning 3-1 against Denmark. Expectations were somewhat mixed coming into it due to a relatively inexperienced squad.
Captain Jonathan Tah and Mahmoud Dahoud are the standout players. They will bring the quality and know how both having played two years ago. One thing you can never do, though, is discount a German team when it comes to finals football.
Marco Richter was the start of the show in the first game. The Augsburg striker scored twice against the Danes – his first goals for his country at this level. He will be looking to add to them and lead his team to the cusp of qualifying for the semi-finals.
Serbia U21 – Can Serbia spring what would be a big surprise?
Serbia have had a very rewarding time of it at these Championships. They have won it as the former Yugoslavia in the very first running of it back in 1978 and have qualified for the finals 11 times. This is their third straight appearance but the last couple of been slightly disappointing having never made it out the group stage. It looks like an uphill struggle to do better this time around, too. A 2-0 defeat to Austria was not the start they were looking for and also a surprise. It leaves them with a lot of work to do starting with this game against Germany. The Serbs will finish their group stage off with a
Clash against Denmark on Sunday. They only hope that it will mean something by that time and for that they require a huge performance tomorrow.
The undoubted star of this Serbian squad is Luka Jovic. Having enjoyed an excellent season with Eintracht Frankfurt Jovic earned a dream move to Real Madrid. He’s going to be a star for both club and country for years to come but he will be disappointed with his performance against Austria. With so much expectation and eyes on him, he’ll be looking to shine on this stage.
Key-Facts – Germany U21 v Serbia U21
- Germany are the reigning European champions at this level and started this competition with a 3-1 win
- A Luka Jovic led Serbian team were expected to go well here but suffered a disappointing 2-0 loss to Austria
- Serbia have to come out and attack in this game and with 13 of Germany’s last 15 games featuring at least three goals it’s likely we’ll see a few
Germany U21 v Serbia U21 Betting Advice
The opening games for these two nations could not have been any more contrasting. Germany did not have any real hype coming in, despite being holders, but turned in an impressive performance. Serbia, on the other hand, were expected to go well with Jovic and go and were extremely poor. It’s been four years since the two played each other having been drawn together in the group stage of the 2015 competition. That game ended 1-1 but that sort of result would not be much good to Serbia this time.
All is not lost for Serbia just yet despite their poor start. This is a capable team as shown by a run of just one defeat in their last 13 before the competition started. Germany will be aware of that an expecting a fast start from their opponents. Jovic is the sort of player who’s good enough to have a big say in matters, as well. When Germany play there tends to be goals with 13 of the last 15 featuring three or more. As Serbia have to get the win it’s likely to be an open affair making over 2.5 goals a solid bet in this one.
