The German U17 team is largely absent from participating in the European Championships

Heads are tense: Germany missed participating in the European Championship against Portugal.
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According to the current results, discussions about young talents in the DFB should gain new fuel. After the German U-19 and U-17 youth teams, the U-17 youth team – with a completely new team – missed out on participating in the European Championship finals on Tuesday.

It is certain that the tournament in Cyprus (from May 20 to June 5) will be held without Germany's participation. In the end, it was not only the final group match 2:3 (0:1) in the second qualifying round of the European Championship against the host nation and group winners that decided Germany's fate.

Above all, it was Croatia's shock 5-0 win in the parallel match against Ireland that cost Germany's youngsters the European Championship. At the last minute, Germany dropped from second place to third place.

Shortly before the end of the first half, the Portuguese took the lead through the athletic talent Giovanni Cuenda (42). German Football Association coach Michael Bruce had to react and showed the right instinct by replacing Hanover's Dennis Hauser, who equalized just four minutes after the start of the second half.

Portuguese double strike – then Croatia scores

The level remained unchanged until the last quarter of an hour before a double Portuguese strike weakened Germany's hopes of participating in the European Championship, as Braga and Quinda's João Truvesco scored the decisive goals again (78th and 82nd minutes).

In the 90th minute, Hauser gave us another boost with his second goal. But around the same time, the Croatians made it 5-0 against Ireland in the 96th minute and skipped past this year's world and European champions.

At the beginning of the second qualifying round for the European Championship, Germany tied with Croatia 3-3 in a turbulent match with four penalty kicks. This was followed by a strong response with a 2-0 win over Ireland, but it was not enough in the end.