Germany U21 vs England U21. Under-21 International.
BRITA-Arena Wiesbaden.
Friday 24 March 2017 23:16, UK
Aidy Boothroyd will take charge of his first game since being confirmed as the full-time England U21 coach when they face Germany U21s on Friday (kick-off 7pm) at the 13,500-capacity BRITA-Arena in Wiesbaden.
The former Watford manager was named as Gareth Southgate's replacement in February after the latter was appointed as the senior team's new boss.
Boothroyd had previously been in interim charge of the U21 squad and will now lead them into the summer's European Championships in Poland, with their preparations starting with friendlies against German and Danish counter-parts in the coming days.
"We want to play the best and we want to prepare for the tournament properly," he told the FA's official website.
"We know the Germans will be one of the favourites next summer, but then so are the Danes because there's only 12 teams in the finals.
"So whoever can get their players, and whoever can keep them fit and keep them right, will have a chance of winning it. We want to rival all of the top nations and we know what the benchmarks are to reach that level.
"You need a really good opponent to test yourself and make sure you're the best you can be and Germany have always been that at all age groups."
Boothroyd will be without Southampton duo Nathan Redmond and James Ward-Prowse after their inclusion with the senior side while fellow club team-mate Sam McQueen has received his first call-up to the U21 squad.
Norwich midfielder Jacob Murphy has also joined up with the U21s for the first time after the withdrawal of Isaiah Brown. Joe Gomez, Solly March and Cauley Woodrow have all returned to the squad.
"You do crave for it, so to get everybody back now, I'm like a kid, and so happy to be back out on the pitch and working with the players again," Boothroyd added.
"We've got a group of players here who have earned the right to be where they are. They all have different pathways, sometimes they've got to go out to come back in, whether that means going out on loan or just to play football.
"It's very competitive, we've got some good players in all age groups and the fact we've had some players move up from the younger age groups into the U21s shows we've got some real talent."
The Germany U21s also have two debutants in their squad - Marc-Oliver Kempf from Freiburg and Thilo Kehrer from Schalke - with former Arsenal winger Serge Gnabry also named in the side.
Rumoured Premier League targets Mahmoud Dahoud and Max Meyer are also included as the Germans also work on their preparations for the European Championships.
