The German U 17 national team also missed out on a win in their second Algarve Cup appearance. Spain were too strong.
The German U-17 national team has no more chance to win the Algarve Cup. At the four-nation tournament, which serves as a dress rehearsal for the 2nd European Championship qualifying round in March, the DFB selection lost 0:2 to Spain on Sunday.
In front of 200 fans, Leverkusen’s Iker Bravo (37th) and Real Madrid’s Pol Fortuny (56th) scored against the German juniors, who missed several scoring opportunities in the second half.
“Spain was the strongest opponent we have played so far in the U17s,” coach Heiko Westermann, who stood in for head coach Marc Meister who was absent due to illness, as he did for the 1-1 draw against Portugal in the opener, classified the defeat on the DFB website. “We made three or four mistakes, which the Spanish punished mercilessly. But after the 0:2 we came back super and showed a great mentality.”
The former Bundesliga defender hopes the game will have “a big learning effect”. It showed that “everything has to be right against the big teams”. Westermann’s team will face Slovakia at the end of the mini-tournament on Tuesday (5pm).
