U21 Nationals - Suhonen earns the bragging rights over Vuskovic

The eyes of the HSV officials were mainly directed towards Varaždin during the international matches last night (29 March). In the city of 50,000 inhabitants in the north of Croatia, the U21 national team of the country met the team from Finland. Among them: Mario Vuskovic (20) and Anssi Suhonen (21), who were already looking forward to this "special" encounter as opponents in the European Championship qualifiers and were fired up in the run-up to the match. In the end, there was a big surprise as the Finns, who were classified as underdogs, won 3:2 with Suhonen in the starting eleven and inflicted the first defeat on the Croats. Mario Vuskovic, who also started and played the entire 90 minutes, could not do anything about the three goals. His team was already 3-0 down at the break after goals from Naatan Skyttä (11/29) and Terry Ablade (45/3). Josip Sutalo (70th) and Toni Fruk (87th) came back and scored to make it 2:3, which was not a happy ending.  A small consolation: Croatia remains top of Group A with 19 points, one game less and three points ahead of Austria (16 points). Finland is fourth in the table with 13 points behind Norway (15 points). However, Suhonen will certainly savour the success against his team-mate.

The HSV duo in the German U21 national team also made a very successful return to Hamburg. Josha Vagnoman (starting eleven and 90 minutes of action) and Faride Alidou (substituted for Ansgar Knauff in the 76th minute) won 1:0 (0:0) with the DFB team in Israel. The match-winner was Noah Katterbach, who scored in the 60th minute. Coach Antonio di Salvo's team now leads Group B with 21 points ahead of Israel (16 points). 

Ludovit Reis had already returned to Hamburg after playing for the Dutch U21 national team last Friday to have a slight injury from the game at HSV examined and cured. He returned to the training ground at the Volksparkstadion today. His team won 2-0 (0-0) against Switzerland last night and thus moved one game and two points (17 pts) behind the Swiss in Group E.