Germany beats Romania 4-2 to reach Euro U21 final

BOLOGNA, Italy (AP) — Luca Waldschmidt and Nadiem Amiri scored late as defending champion Germany came from behind to beat Romania 4-2 and reach the Under-21 European Championship final.

Germany will face the winner of the match between Spain and France later Thursday.

Amiri gave Germany the lead in the 21st minute after racing from inside his own half but George Puscas leveled from the spot following a foul by Timo Baumgartl on Ianis Hagi.

And Romania, which was making only its second appearance in the competition, took the lead on the stroke of halftime when Puscas headed in.

Germany leveled shortly after the break when Waldschmidt converted a spot kick after Hagi was penalized for pulling on Mahmoud Dahoud’s shirt.

As the match appeared headed for extra time Germany scored after Amiri backheeled a free kick into Waldschmidt’s path and the Freiburg forward fired into the bottom right corner.

It got worse for Romania as defender Alex Pascanu was sent off for a last-man foul on Lukas Nmecha and Amiri sealed the match with another free kick.