Fourth match, fourth win, five goals away from home – the record of the German U 21 reads excellent. Captain Jonathan Burkardt, however, was not entirely happy.
“In any case” he was annoyed, said Jonathan Burkardt after the final whistle on the microphone of “ProSiebenMAXX”. This was despite the fact that the team he had captained had just won 5:1. “I wanted to score my goal and unfortunately I didn’t,” explained the Mainz attacker. Although he played a decisive role in two German goals as a constant asset, he did not score one of his own – even though he frequently looked for the finish after the decisive 4:1.
There was a certain disappointment in his body language when his shot in the 90th minute only hit the post – although Kevin Schade then pushed it over the line for the final score and said afterwards that “it was actually Johnny’s goal”. After the game, Burkardt made it clear: “The important thing is that we won today.
Only remaining regular player of the European Champion team
For the offensive man, it was incidentally the second away win at the Hungarian U 21s this calendar year after the 3-0 in the preliminary round of the European Championship in March. At the time, Burkardt was also on the pitch from the start – albeit still with Stefan Kuntz as coach and with ten different teammates than seven months later. Only Malick Thiaw, apart from Burkardt, was at least in the squad for both games, but did not play in March.
So Burkardt, the only remaining regular from the summer’s European champions team, is now expected to lead the way as captain to create similar success. “Last year’s team became European champions, we’re just at the beginning now,” judged the Mainz native. “So it’s hard for me to make a comparison. But the team is very willing to implement things.”
Antonio Di Salvo took a similar view. “I am very happy with the development because some processes worked better today,” said the Germany U-21 coach. “It has to continue like this.” And then maybe with a Burkardt goal again.
