Germany U21 captain Tom Bischof reflects on scintillating hat-trick: “I’m good at shooting.” | OneFootball

Bayern Munich phenom Lennart Karl wasn’t the only one to net multiple goals in the Germany U21 squad’s 6-0 victory over Malta last night. While Karl basked in the glory of bagging a brace, his Bayern teammate Tom Bischof celebrated a hat-trick. Bischof scored three gorgeous long range goals. It was some performance from the U21 captain.

Bischof – who has already been capped once for Germany at senior level – had to deal with what technically qualifies as a demotion when settling in with Antonio Di Salvo’s DFB Juniors in October. The 20-year-old didn’t get off to the greatest start in U21 dress, but that’s obviously long forgotten after last night’s performance.

“I’ve scored a hat-trick at the U16 and U17 levels,” Bischof recounted in the mixed zone last night. “But unfortunately not at club level yet. I practiced my finishing yesterday and am pretty good at shooting. I didn’t expect to score three goals, but I hoped we would win by a large margin. This win gave us a lot of confidence because everyone had chances. Unfortunately, we could have scored many more goals.“

That small bit of criticism notwithstanding, Bischof found himself very pleased with both his “Man-of-the-Match” ball and the faith Di Salvo bestowed upon him by awarding him the captain’s armband. Bischof spoke on both topics, first revealing what he planned to do with the physical manifestation of his latest honor. 

“First, everyone signs it,” Bishof said of the MOTM ball. “And then there’s a little memorabilia corner at my parents’ house. There’s not that much there yet, but with this ball, there are now four, and I hope there will be more.”

“I was very happy about that,” Bischof said of the captain’s armband. “It’s a huge responsibility for and a wonderful feeling to lead Germany onto the pitch with the armband. It pushes you even more and gives you even more self-confidence, but I would have had the same task without the armband and would have done the same thing.”

GGFN | Peter Weis