Actually, Antonio Di Salvo is not a friend of particularly drastic words, the coach of the German U21 national team likes to put things into perspective and appease them. However, on Wednesday evening, when he and his team crashed out of the European Championship tournament, he felt compelled to formulate very clear words. “We were a class down today,” he said after the terrible 2-0 defeat against England, “we were shown limits today.”
This demonstration of power by the opponent was a fitting conclusion to this utterly unsuccessful tournament, in the course of which the team that had arrived as the defending champions had fallen further and further apart. “It was heartless,” said midfielder Angelo Stiller about the lifeless second half that ended this thoroughly bleak summer for the national team. The hope that the U21s could brighten up the gloomy mood that prevailed in the men’s department of the DFB a year before the European Championship with a few exciting games was finally dashed. Because luck was missing, but also because the team and coach never became a properly functioning unit.
