Serge Gnabry’s goal at the Audi-Sportpark on Friday was certainly one to enjoy. With the Germans already leading 1-0, the 21-year-old met a ball into box the from Leroy Sané and hit the back of the net with a volley in the 34th minute, making Germany’s qualification for the U21s European Championships next year in Poland almost certain. However countless chances from both sides and five subsequent goals set the match on fire. Gnabry and his teammates in the end were able to celebrate a hard-fought 4-3 victory and secured their place at the tournament before their final qualifier on Tuesday. 

Johannes Eggestein and Niklas Schmidt are similarly in international action with one of Germany’s youth teams. Both Werder youngsters are competing for the Germany U19s in a Four Nations tournament in Albania in the first round of qualification for the European Championships in Georgia. The victory was never in doubt in their first match as the Germans thumped Gibraltar 5-0. Johannes Eggestein put Frank Kramer’s team in front after 38 minutes. Both Eggestein and Schmidt were on the pitch for the duration of the match. 

Austria’s national team took on Euros semi-finalists Wales and superstar Gareth Bale in Vienna. Zlatko Junuzovic featured for 79 minutes before being replaced by Schalke’s Alessandro Schöpf. However a player with some Werder history featured in this encounter: Marko Arnautovic equalised twice for the Austrians and secured a point for his country. There were three points for Austria’s U21s in the Faroe Islands, where the team battled to earn a 1-0 victory. Florian Grillitsch was in the starting XI and remained on the pitch for the full 90 minutes. 

Grillitsch was not the only player forced to travel to the North Atlantic: Niklas Moisander had already been in action there against Iceland one day previously. However the Finland captain certainly did not achieve the same success as his Werder teammates. Finland lost the match 3-2 after conceding twice in stoppage time, while Moisander was also shown a yellow card shortly after the winning goal. Milos Veljkovic, who Moisander partnered at centre-back in Werder’s first win of the Bundesliga season against VfL Wolfsburg, was in action for the Serbia U21s and took all three points against Ireland in a 3-1 win. 

Izet Hajrovic (Bosnia-Herzegovina), Thanos Petsos (Greece) and Ulisses Garcia (Switzerland U21s) were also chosen to represent their respective countries. They were in the squads for their team’s matches on Friday evening but none of them featured.