It has been clear for months which teams from the Bundesliga will represent German football in the Champions League in the coming season: FC Bayern, RB Leipzig, BVB and VfL Wolfsburg. The four teams finished the 2020/21 season in the first four places in the table. The German participation is still high if this Tuesday and Wednesday (9 p.m. /Sky, Amazon Prime and DAZN) European teams fight for a place in the premier class. In the playoff first legs it is important to get a good starting position before the last six of the 32 participants are finally determined in the coming week. 18 Germans who are under contract with Champions League aspirants will then be there.
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RB Salzburg (against Brondby IF, Tuesday, 9 p.m., Sky Sport Austria 2 HD and DAZN)
Nico Mantl, Philipp Köhn, Alexander Walke: As far as goalkeepers are concerned, RB Salzburg relies on staff from the neighboring country. The veteran Alexander Walke is the longest-serving member of the trio: the 38-year-old has been under contract with the 15-time Austrian champions since 2010. Although he never played a game in the German House of Lords, Walke became German champions with Werder Bremen in 2004.
The 23 year old Philipp Koehn was born in Dinslaken (North Rhine-Westphalia), but has been guarding the goal of the Swiss U-national teams since 2016. He was trained at MSV Duisburg, Schalke 04 and VfB Stuttgart. For the 2017/18 season, RB Leipzig secured the services of the 1.90-meter tall keeper. After a loan to FC Wil 1900, he returned to RB Salzburg at the start of this season.
Nico Mantl At 21 years old, he is the youngest of the three goalkeepers. Born in Munich, he came to RB Salzburg from Unterhaching in January. Since then he has made three appearances in the Austrian Bundesliga and one in the ÖFB Cup. Under ex-U20 national coach Manuel Baum, Mantl also played 1-0 against Switzerland in October 2019.
Kilian Ludewig: Kilian Ludewig did not have a good season to switch to FC Schalke 04. The 21-year-old right-back came to the former Bundesliga club on loan from Salzburg in October 2020. After six games, five of which he played over 90 minutes, the native of Hamburg, who was trained at RB Leipzig, was removed from the starting line-up. A metatarsal fracture cost the four-time U20 national player the entire second half of the season before returning to Salzburg.
Mergim Berisha: The 23-year-old is one of the U21 European champion from 2021. In Stefan Kuntz’s team, the native of Berchtesgaden was an offensive player in the starting line-up in all tournament games. In the first game against Hungary he put on the 3-0 for Ridle Baku. Berisha comes from the Salzburg youth, his only station in Germany was a loan to 1. FC Magdeburg over six months (2018). The 23-year-old is currently suffering from an adductor injury.
Karim Adeyemi: The 19-year-old from Munich also won the European championship title with the German U21s this year. In the knockout games, the center forward came to three short appearances. The left foot changed in 2018 for a fee of 3.35 million euros (transfermarkt.de) from the youth of SpVgg Unterhaching to Salzburg.
Also the Trainer is a German with the Salzburgers: Matthias Jaissle is the successor to Jesse Marsch, who moved to RB Leipzig. The 33-year-old ex-TSG Hoffenheim player began his professional coaching career as assistant coach for Salzburg’s play-off opponent Brondby IF.
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AS Monaco (against Shachtar Donetsk, Tuesday, 9 p.m., Sky Sport Austria 3 HD and Amazon prime)
Alexander Nübel: In the trophy cabinet of the native Paderborn there is a championship trophy, the German Supercup and that of the UEFA. So far, however, Nübel has hardly played at Bayern. For him there was simply no getting around Manuel Neuer – not even in supposedly less important games. World champion Neuer always wanted to play that himself. Since this season, the 24-year-old Nübel has been on loan to AS Monaco for two years. Under ex-Bayern coach Niko Kovac, the 17-time U21 national player should collect match practice. In 46 Bundesliga games for FC Schalke 04 (2015-2020), the designated Neuer successor remained without conceding 13 goals.
Ismail Jakobs: The U21 European champions came to Monaco from 1. FC Köln this summer. The left midfielder can already look back on 43 Bundesliga games and will also play a role in his first season at AS Monaco. In the CL qualification he was substituted on in both games against Sparta Prague, at home he presented a goal in a 3-1 win.
Kevin Volland: Ex-national coach Joachim Löw took the 29-year-old striker to the European Championship this summer and changed him twice – against France and Hungary – shortly before the end. Volland made 247 Bundesliga games from 2012 to 2020 for TSG 1899 Hoffenheim and Bayer 04 Leverkusen. The son of the national ice hockey player Andreas Volland was trained at 1860 Munich.
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Benfica Lisbon v PSV Eindhoven (Wednesday, 9 p.m., Sky and DAZN)
A Portuguese against a Dutch first division team, but several German players competing against each other. Benfica Lisbon relies on a German axis:
Odysseas Vlachodimos: The substitute goalkeeper for the U21 European champions of 2017 is now number one in Greece’s senior team. At VfB Stuttgart, he made the leap to the pros in 2014, but was unable to prevail against Sven Ulreich and Thorsten Kirschbaum. In January 2016, Vlachodimos then moved to Panathinaikos Athens on a free transfer, where he played his way into the field of vision of top international clubs. Benfica bought the German-Greeks in 2018 for 2.4 million euros. Since then he has been on the pitch 125 times for the Portuguese champions of 2019 – twelve of them in the Champions League.
Julian Weigl: The defensive midfielder won the DFB Cup with Borussia Dortmund in 2017. In the semi-final win against FC Bayern (3-2), the now 25-year-old was still on the pitch for over 90 minutes, in the final against Eintracht Frankfurt the five-time German national player, who was trained as a professional at 1860 Munich, was injured. At Benfica, Weigl was the undisputed regular under coach Jorge Jesus last season.
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Luca Waldschmidt: The striker was the top scorer at the 2019 U21 European Championship and came to Lisbon from SC Freiburg in August 2020. Trained at Eintracht Frankfurt and active for Hamburger SV between 2016 and 2018, the seven-time German national team player (two goals) now has a release clause of 88 million euros from the 37-time Portuguese champions.
Added to this is the one currently injured Rodrigo Pine a Brazilian who was born as the son of ex-HSV professional Nando near Hamburg and has German citizenship.
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Benfica meets PSV Eindhoven, their coach Roger Schmidt In the Champions League with Bayer Leverkusen (2014 to 2017) he never made it past the round of 16, and in the Europa League, the 54-year-old always finished in the last sixteen. But Schmidt has led two compatriots to Holland who feel right at home in the Netherlands.
Mario Götze: The 2014 world champion goalscorer made it to the finals of the premier class with BVB in the 2012/13 season. Shortly before the final against FC Bayern, the German record champions made the change of the offensive player official. Dortmund lost the game at London’s Wembley Stadium with 1: 2, Götze was absent due to a torn muscle. In 2016 Götze returned to Borussia Dortmund as a prodigal son, but could not build on his performance from before the move. The 29-year-old is thriving again at PSV.
Philipp Max: Max also played for FC Bayern once – but only when he was young. Martin Max’s son played 147 times in the Bundesliga for Schalke 04 and FC Augsburg from 2014. The 27-year-old left-back has also made three international matches under Joachim Löw.
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Young Boys Bern (against Ferencvaros Budapest, Wednesday, 9 p.m., Sky Sport Austria 2 HD and DAZN)
David Wagner: Because Gerardo Seoane migrated from Young Boys Bern to Bundesliga club Bayer 04 Leverkusen, the Bernese signed the Frankfurt-born coach David Wagner. Jürgen Klopp’s best man last stood on the sidelines at Schalke 04 from July 2019 to September 2020. The 49-year-old had previously led Huddersfield Town into the English Premier League. The former professional player (including at Mainz 05 and Schalke 04) started out as a coach as a youth coach in Hoffenheim and with Borussia Dortmund’s second team.
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Ludogorez Rasgrad (against Malmö FF, Wednesday, 9 p.m., Sky Sport Austria 3 HD and DAZN)
Cauly: The German-Brazilian midfielder was born in Porto Seguro, Brazil. But he grew up near Cologne. In the metropolis on the Rhine, the 25-year-old ran through the youth teams of 1. FC Köln and won the 2013 A-Junior Cup with the Effzeh. After positions at Fortuna Cologne, MSV Duisburg and SC Paderborn – for which he made 13 Bundesliga games – Cauly joined the Bulgarian champions of the last ten years in January 2020.
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