Prescott and Lemke help Germany U17 avoid defeat against Slovenia | OneFootball

Muamer Vugdalic’s side were missing Maj Balazic after his red card in the 2-0 defeat to France in their opening game of Round 2 qualifiers for the U17 Euros and World Cup. The hosts suffered another blow when Tristan Kotar’s game ended within seconds due to an injury.

As expected, Germany were in full control from the first whistle, but they struggled to create clear-cut chances. On the contrary, a mistake by the captain Joschua Siewert nearly led to the opening goal of the game at the other end. 

His counterpart Miha Matjasec saw Leonard Prescott’s advanced position, but his lob narrowly missed the target. The New York-born goalkeeper was in the headlines when he seemed to be the only one available for Bayern to feature in their Champions League home game against Atalanta.

Eventually, Jonas Urbig’s timely return to full fitness denied an unprecedented debut at such a high level for a 16-year-old shot-stopper. However, Prescott showed his composure here when he denied Matjasec with a stretched leg after another mistake at the back, this time from Jerome Diallo.

Josef Haßfeld had a frustrating half as Germany’s striker, and the Czech referee Jan Všetečka cautioned him for diving. Meanwhile, Slovenia’s danger man, Matjasec, was lucky to escape a second booking in the injury-time of the first-half.

At the third time of asking, Matjasec eventually beat Prescott early after the restart with a powerful hit. Germany quickly found their way back into the game with Slovenia unable to deal with a routine long ball. Substitute Louis Lemke, who made HSV’S matchday squad in the exciting draw against champions-elect Bayern earlier this year, scored after rounding the keeper.

Prescott had to make three splendid saves in the final twenty minutes, but the best one of the competitive game came from Luka Kokol. The Slovenian midfielder made a goalmouth clearance to block another substitute to complete the comeback as Torben Leis was unable to win it in the 90th minute for Germany.

Germany will face France in the final game of the group on Tuesday, while Slovenia host North Macedonia. After their 2-1 win over North Macedonia, France only need a draw to go through to this summer's tournament in Estonia. Meanwhile, finishing second in the group could be enough for qualifying to the World Cup as FIFA extended the number of participants to 48.