Germany fight back to beat NI in U21 qualifier

Germany came from behind to beat Northern Ireland 2-1 in Tuesday's Euro Under-21 qualifier at the Oval.

Ruairi McConville gave the home side the lead after four minutes when he rose highest to head home Jamie Donley's corner.

However, two goals in four minutes from Assan Ouedraogo and Dzenan Pejcinovic secured the three points for Germany in the final 11 minutes of the game.

The result means Northern Ireland fall to fourth position in the group with top seeds Germany moving up to second place, behind Greece.

Ruthless Germany leave it late

Tommy Wright's Northern Ireland side started the game with intent and took an early lead when Donley's corner was nodded home by McConville.

Northern Ireland pushed for a quick second, but Donley was unable to keep his effort on target.

As the half progressed, Germany settled into the game with Muhammed Damar's free-kick striking the side netting and Tom Bischof and Lukas Ullrich's strikes gathered by Stephen McMullan.

Late in the first half Shea Kearney travelled through midfield before passing to Patrick Kelly, whose shot was blocked by Dennis Seimen before Kearney's rebound was cleared off the line by Noel Aseko.

After the restart, Seimen made a low save to divert McKenzie Kirk's on-target shot.

In front of a crowd of 1,152, Germany then thought they had levelled the game through Weiper, but the flag shot up as he had strayed offside.

However, the away side continued to push equalised in the 79th minute when Assan Ouedraogo headed home Bischof's cross.

Three minutes later, the away side were awarded a penalty when Darren Robinson was penalised for handling the ball in the box.

Despite stopper McMullan guessing the correct way, he couldn't stop Pejcinovic's low shot into the bottom left hand corner and securing the three points late in the game.