European Junior Championships semifinals (this Friday): France/Denmark and Germany/Austria!

The 11th European Junior Championships are held on August 23 and 25 in Germany. Europe's four top junior national teams will play the two semi-finals on Friday at Dusseldorf and square off two days later at Cologne for the medals.



Defending champions from Austria start their quest for another European title with a clash with the hosts from Germany in one of the semifinals (August 23, 6 pm CET). The other semifinal is played at 2 pm CET by Denmark and the French national team.



An exciting contest is to be expected, and it should feature very close games. At the last European Junior Championships in Seville (Spain) all games between nations that now will compete in the Rhineland ended with no more than a seven point margin - except for one game: In the 2011 Gold Medal Game the Austrians beat France by 24-14, although the French had defended their 14-10 half-time lead until into the last quarter. For Austria it was the first European Junior Championship. Before 2011 Germany (four times), Finland (three times) and France (twice) had won the competition.



And there is much to the assumption, that the teams have even levelled more in preparation for this EJC in terms of performance. Austria, however, is determined to take the trophy home again. For a total of five preparatory camps head coach Jacob Dieplinger had gathered his team before it traveled to Germany.



To play in the semifinals against the hosts from Germany sparks mixed feelings. On one hand, motivation for Austrian sports teams always is at highest levels, when they get to face German teams, and at Seville they won the opening match against the same opponents by 14-7. But on the other hand, the Germans seek revenge exactly for this game, which spoiled their 2011 campaign, and they do so at Dusseldorf, which like Cologne is one of the strongholds of German youth and junior football.



After the semi-finals at Dusseldorf-Benrath the EJC entourage will move to Cologne-Hohenberg, where the final games (August 25, Bronze Medal Game: 2 pm, Gold Medal Game: 5 pm) will be held.



Source: EFAF