The U20 national team is at the start of the U20 World Cup in Gothenburg with one celebrated success started the tournament against Finland. U20 national coach Tobias Abstreiter's team won 4-3 with a convincing performance. Goal scorers for that DEBteam were Veit Oswald (2) Niklas Huebner and Roman Kechter. In DEB-Goal got today Philipp Dietl his first appearance and parried 40 shots from the Finns.
The DEBteam got off to a perfect start in the game and had their first big chance of the game after just one minute through Julian Lutz. After almost six minutes of play, Veit Oswald took advantage of a major mistake in the Finnish defense and converted his own follow-up shot to give the team a 1-0 lead. Just two minutes later, the Finns equalized with their second shot on goal by Tommi Mannisto (9th). The subsequent power play for that DEB-Team remained without a significant scene. In the second German majority game, the Germans achieved more offensive accents again. After 20 minutes, the score remained 1:1, with the German U20 having more chances with 13:5 shots.
Like in the first third that had DEBteam had their first chance to take the lead right at the start of the middle period: Finland goalkeeper Niklas Kokko was able to deflect Veit Oswald's shot onto the crossbar. Afterwards, an open exchange of blows developed: Finland initially took the lead in the 22nd minute through Kasper Halttunen. In the direct counterattack, Niklas Hübner managed the immediate answer with the 2-2 after an assist from Kevin Bicker. Just 52 seconds later, the Finns increased the lead to 3:2. Roman Kechter initially equalized in the 34th minute, before Veit Oswald made it 4-3 at the break a minute later.
In the final period, the Finns threw everything into the balance to equalize. Dietl in the German goal was able to continue to excel in this phase of the game and held on to the narrow lead. Even when they were outnumbered from the 55th minute onwards, the German defense prevented the equalizer and was able to go into the final phase with a narrow lead. The Finns' power play two minutes before the end - with the goalie pulled - was also able to do this DEB-Team survived unscathed with a unified team performance and thus achieved their first victory at this U20 World Cup.
U20 national coach Tobias Abstreiter: “I particularly liked the commitment, the willingness to run and the absolute will to give everything for the team. We saw against the Finns what is possible when we believe in ourselves. We will now regenerate as best we can so that we can go into the game tomorrow against the Swedes with the same attitude as today.”
Striker Veit Oswald: “We are all proud of our performance because we did the simple things right today and that is what matters. Three points against Finland at the start is simply amazing for us. We’ll enjoy this for a moment now and then prepare for tomorrow.”
It will continue tomorrow, Thursday. In the evening, hosts Sweden are waiting for the U20 team. The game starts at 19:30 p.m. and will be broadcast live and free of charge on MagentaSport.