UEFA.com
May 19 2004

Delura double galvanises Germany

Germany continued their bid to reach the UEFA European Under-19
Championship finals with an impressive 5-0 win against Armenia in
Bratislava in their opening match in Group 3.

Early lead
A young Armenian side was comprehensively out-manoeuvred by a
disciplined German team, who were physically and tactically stronger
and took a 2-0 lead early in the match thanks to two goals from
Michael Delura at the FK Rapid Ruzinov stadium.

Well-taken goals
The FC Schalke 04 striker opened the scoring in the 15th minute,
bursting on to Sahr Senesie’s pass and shooting into the top corner.
The same player doubled the lead four minutes later as he broke clear
down the right and escaped the attentions of two defenders to score
with his left foot.

Penalty third
Armenia had a brief spell of pressure at the end of the first half
but struggled to to find a way through to Rene Adler’s goal. It was
Germany who started the second half the stronger and Armenian
goalkeeper Edel Apoula Edima Bete was forced into three good saves
but there was nothing he could do to stop Senesie’s penalty after
Mkhitar Grigoryan had handled.

Substitutes strike
Germany added gloss to the scoreline with two goals in the last five
minutes. First, substitute Enis Alushi dribbled past four defenders
and his high shot somehow evaded Bete to make it 4-0, before
Senesie’s clever back-heel allowed another replacement, Christian
Gentner, to make it five.

‘Team display’
“We played really well as a team today,” said Germany coach Dieter
Eilts. “Everybody wanted the ball, wanted to go forward and it
brought a reward. We had seen Armenia’s games from the first
qualifying stage and knew if they lost the ball in midfield they’d
have problems getting back. So we tried to hit this weakness and
succeeded rather well. Now we have to play Portugal and this will be
a totally different game.”

Portuguese test
Slovakia defeated Portugal 2-1 in Wednesday’s other fixture in the
section and Eilts’ team will go into Friday’s meeting with the
Portuguese in Bratislava in good heart. Armenia meet mini-tournament
hosts Slovakia the same day.