The German national team has a Danish insider in its coaching team and Leopold Querfeld already knows what's what at the age of 20 - in stark contrast to the Turkish delegation.
A young diplomat
After winning their group on Tuesday, the Austrian national team has a week to prepare for their round of 16 match in Leipzig. "It's like a normal championship week. It gives us a few more training sessions to work on details," said Leopold Querfeld, who at 20 years and 188 days was the youngest ÖFB player in history to make his European Championship debut. Querfeld is moving from Rapid Vienna to Union Berlin after the European Championship. He has already gained some impressions of his new adopted home - the Austrians are based in the west of Berlin. The son of a Viennese coffee house dynasty did not want to publicly judge whether the coffee in the German capital could keep up with that in Vienna. He was diplomatic: "We have two good coffee machines in the hotel. We are very well supplied."
The Dane in the DFB team
Julian Nagelsmann's coaching staff includes a real Denmark expert: Mads Buttgereit. Three years ago, he was still working as a standards expert for Germany's upcoming opponents and reached the semi-finals of the European Championship under coach Kasper Hjulmand. After that, the then national coach Hansi Flick brought him to the DFB. However, the son of a Danish mother and a German father does not want to hear of a conflict of interest ahead of the DFB's European Championship round of 16 match against Denmark in Dortmund on Saturday (21:00). He wants a win for Germany, preferably with successful set-pieces.
Turks criticized for mini-flight
UEFA is promoting the tournament as the most sustainable European Championship in history. Now the Turkish national team from Hanover traveled to Hamburg for the last European Championship group game on Wednesday - by plane. Environmentalists sharply criticize this. After all, the two cities are only around 150 kilometers apart. René Schwartz, spokesman for the citizens' initiative for the reduction of air traffic pollution in Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein, described the flight as "absolutely unacceptable". In Hamburg, you are not even allowed to drive up to the stadium in an electric car so that fans can use public transport, Schwartz explained. There is a restricted zone for cars around the stadium. This is precisely why it is so absurd that the Turkish team is traveling to the game by plane.
