The U18 national team won its fourth and final game at the 5-nation tournament in Zuchwil. After a tough fight, the German selection won against Slovakia 3:2 (1:0, 0:1, 2:1). With the three points in the last game, they moved past the hosts in the table and won the strong tournament.
The DEB-U18 national coach Steffen Ziesche's selection had a perfect start. Haakon Hänelt scored the opening goal just after 55 seconds. Afterwards, a balanced game developed at eye level and we went into the first break with this narrow lead.
The German team now took more and more control, but despite superiority and several outnumbered situations, they were unable to extend their lead. On the contrary, in the 36th minute of the game, Team Germany was twice outnumbered and Slovakia used this opportunity to equalize.
Things got really exciting again in the last third of the entire tournament. At the beginning of the final third the DEB-Selection followed immediately and took the lead again in the 43rd minute through Fabrizio Pilu. This was followed by the equalizer by the Slovakia team and the renewed lead by Jakub Borzecki in the 51st minute of the game. The German selection defended this strongly and survived two outnumbered situations on the way to winning the tournament.
Steffen Ziesche, U18 national coach: “We started the game well today and had good overall control of the game. In the final third the team gave it their all and deserved to win in the end. A big compliment to my team, for the first time a German selection was able to win this tournament. But it was just one step towards the World Cup in April. From now on we are concentrating on preparing for the next difficult tournament in Slovakia in February.”
You can find all the statistics for the tournaments HERE