Tommy Wright praises Northern Ireland U21s 'character' in defeat to star-studded German side
Northern Ireland U21s manager Tommy Wright praised the “character” shown by his side in their 3-0 European Championship qualifying defeat to star-studded Germany.
A first half brace from striker Nicolo Tresoldi, who plays for Club Brugge and scored in the Champions League against Atletico Madrid last month, put the Germans into a 2-0 half-time lead.
Nelson Weiper’s strike in the dying moments added further gloss to the scoreline for the hosts, who sit second in Group F behind Greece while Northern Ireland remain third.
One of world football’s biggest powerhouses, the German side was packed full of players plying their trade at a high level – captain Tom Bischof has featured 22 times in the Bundesliga for Bayern Munich this season and racked up nine Champions League outings.
Brighton & Hove Albion bought attacker Brajan Gruda for around £25 million in 2024 and is currently on loan at RB Leipzig after playing 39 times in the Premier League.
Elsewhere, Said El Mala has scored 10 goals in the Bundesliga for Koln this season while players from the likes of Borussia Monchengladbach, Werder Bremen and Stuttgart were also included.
It paints a picture of the tough task faced by Wright’s youngsters in Braunschweig, but the Northern Ireland chief felt his side stepped up to the mark.
"I think they (Germany) deserved to win,” said Wright on Northern Ireland’s social media channels. “I’m really pleased with the performance we put out...I thought we deserved to score and I don’t think we deserved to concede three goals.
"We were disappointed with the first goal we gave away and the second we know we can do better, but we responded well and we have come here against a team full of players playing in the Champions League, Bundesliga, top leagues in Europe, and had nearly 40% possession.
"That is a big plus for us. Unfortunately, as we know in football, if you make those little mistakes, you get punished at this level.
"But no way did I feel it was a 3-0 game...particularly second half on the counter-attack we were excellent.
"There were a lot of big performances that we can take through to Latvia.
“The experience is the main thing for them and they have proven that they can handle that. They showed a lot of character.
"You’re 2-0 down against a side who played Malta here recently and had 16 shots, I think we have limited them to under 10 in the game.
"We were excellent. I’m so disappointed for the players because the performance deserves more than what it got.
"I believe we’re still third in the group and that’s the target we have set ourselves...if we beat Latvia, we can go a long way towards doing that.”