The holders will endeavour to claim their first win of the Under-21 Euro 2023 Championships at the second attempt on Sunday, as Germany Under-21s meet Czech Republic Under-21s in Group C at the Adjarabet Arena.

Jan Suchoparek's side were put to the sword 2-0 by England on the opening matchday, while the Germans were stunted by the 10 men of Israel in a 1-1 draw.

Match preview

Despite seeing just 26% of the ball in the first half of their opening battle with England, the Czech Republic showed signs of life on the counter-attack and could have counted themselves unfortunate not to have made the net bulge before the break.

Those missed opportunities would eventually come back to bite the Little Lions, as Jacob Ramsey calmly opened the scoring two minutes into the second half, and the Czech Republic could not muster up a reply before Emile Smith Rowe tapped in from close range in added time to double England's lead.

While there were numerous positives for the Czechs to take from that encounter, the embryonic Group C standings do not make for positive reading, as Suchoparek's side are already sitting rock-bottom of the section and will be consigned to a group-stage exit should they suffer defeat here.

The Little Lions only qualified for the finals by the skin of their teeth with a narrow playoff success over Iceland, but they have now gone six games without a win since overcoming their Nordic neighbours in the first leg of that affair, scoring a meagre two goals in the process.

Based on their first-half display against England, the Czechs are on the right path to attacking redemption, but they have not progressed to the knockout phase of the Under-21 Euros since 2011 and now face an even more daunting test against the continental champions.

Germany duo Youssoufa Moukoko and Jessic Ngankam may be having nightmares about Israel goalkeeper Daniel Peretz for some time, as the Under-21 Euro 2021 champions dominated the Young Chosen Team from start to finish but somehow only took a point back to base.

A frenzied first half saw Moukoko miss a third-minute penalty before strikes from Israel's Dor Turgeman and Germany's Yann Aurel Bisseck within six minutes of one another, but the writing was seemingly on the wall for Israel when Eden Karzev was sent off on the 45-minute mark.

Germany unsurprisingly spent most of the second 45 camped inside the Israel half, but Antonio Di Salvo's side had no answers to Israel's resilience, and they had a second spot kick from Ngankam kept out by an impenetrable Peretz 10 minutes before the end.

Di Salvo is already fighting an uphill battle to replicate the success of his predecessor Stefan Kuntz, but owing to a better disciplinary record, Germany's point is currently good enough for second place in Group C, although it is now three draws on the bounce for the European champions.

A tally of one win from their last six games in all tournaments does not serve to increase morale either, but Germany have only ever lost one of their eight meetings with the Czech Republic at Under-21 level, most recently triumphing 2-0 in the Euro 2017 group stage thanks to goals from Max Meyer and Serge Gnabry.