september 5, 2021 08:05
The Danish U17 national team has got off to a great start at this year’s European Championships in Slovenia. They win the first team match against Luxembourg 5-0, and today beat their opponents from Romania 5-0.
The U17 national team has played a total of 10 matches in the last two days, and out of them, the young talents have only lost one set. – We have just been better, says U17 national coach Frank Larsen.
– If I’m going to be a little cold, we’ve just been better. We have got a good pool with affordable opponents. Our game works really well and in such matches where we do not meet much resistance, it is about for the players to get comfortable on the field and especially the back line. It is important that we focus on the conditions around the course, and we have also practiced this for the training.
Yesterday, Denmark played a team match against Romania, and the players did not meet the great opposition in either DS or HS. In DS Lærke Thomsen wins 21-9, 21-6 against Popescu, and in HS Sebastian Mikkelsen wins 21-6, 21-15 against Turcu. It looked difficult in DD, HD and MD, where Romania gave the young Danes a fight to the finish line.
– Romania came with a little more today. We meet players we do not know very well in the doubles and we had several sets where we had to fight with things. We get more challenged, but are good at handling it and win fairly easily, says U17 national coach Frank Larsen.
See all the results from the two matches here
The Danish women’s doubles Sofie Røjkjær and Maria Højlund Tommerup win in three sets 21-17, 18-21, 21-15 against Serban and Stoica. The men’s doubles with Jonathan Melgaard and Mike Vestergaard wins in two sets 21-14, 21-15 against Andrei Octavian Coman and Luca-Stefan Pandele. The Danish boys are especially challenged in their serve in the second set, where they start by being behind 3-10.
– We are challenged in the second set, where we are behind, but here it is also other things that come into play. We are convicted of two serving errors and two receiving errors. We remember working with the serve. This is the first time the players try the 1.15 rule and they have to give it everything they have and if it is judged they just have to lower it a bit but it should not knock them out.
See who has been selected for this year’s U17 EC here
After the match against Luxembourg on Friday, the players’ positions were moved around, and yesterday only Mike Vestergaard in the men’s doubles and Sofie Røjkjær in the women’s doubles were allowed to maintain their positions against Romania.
– It is important for us to get our players off to a good start, so we have changed positions. It’s a big new venue, so they should be allowed to tag the game, and we give them as many minutes on the field as we can. We believe this is positive in the long run both in the team tournament and in the individual tournament.
Today, the last group match against Cyprus awaits at 18.00. A match that seems affordable according to the national coach. The focus must also be on the players’ positions for the subsequent matches.
– We are looking forward, we have quite a few hours before the match. The team is ready and we will probably have to cope with the task that has been set before us today. It’s also about finding out which of the players we should have in which positions when the exciting matches start on Monday.
You can watch the U17 national team matches live on Badminton Europe’s Youtube channel.
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Tags: Jonathan Melgaard, Lærke Thomsen, Maria Højlund Tommmerup, Mike Vestergaard, Sebastian Mikkelsen, Sofie Røjkjær, U17
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