Denmark buoyant but Germany up against it

Denmark's perfect record to date and near full complement of players could scarcely be in starker contrast to UEFA European Under-17 Championship semi-final opponents Germany, back from the brink of elimination but without four suspended players in Novi Sad on Thursday.

Yellow cards against Serbia and France mean Denmark coach Thomas Frank will be without full-back Mads Aaquist. But Steffen Freund must draw deeper on Germany's reserves due to bans for full-back Mitchell Weiser, centre-half Nico Perrey, winger Fabian Schnellhardt and top scorer Samed Yesil.

Throw midfielder Jeremy Toljan's call-up in place of the injured Levent Aycicek and reserve goalkeeper Cedric Wilmes's registeration as an outfield player into the mix and surely even Frank, who described his side as pre-tournament "dark horses", must now be tipping them to reach Sunday's final. "[Germany] have to be huge favourites for the semi-final as it would be a catastrophe for them if they don't reach the final," he told UEFA.com.

"They are a very good team. They play fast and they have very good individuals, so I think it's going to be difficult, but I think it's also going to be difficult for Germany. I don't try to ground my players because we just have to go with the flow and stay as confident as we are. It's more important to believe we are really good. There's fantastic joy and confidence. We are just waiting and hoping it continues."

Freund, by contrast, will hope his fringe players step up to the plate after seeing his side show impressive defiance to secure a late draw against the Czech Republic on Matchday 2 before defeating Romania to progress. "We won against Romania, defensively maybe one of the best teams in the European Championship," he said.

"I am a bit surprised we are in the tournament because normally the Czech Republic would beat Holland and we would be out. Step by step. We didn't think about the semi-finals [against Romania], but we were sure we would win. The goal came early, but we won and that's why I am proud of the players and all the staff. Games like that will help players grow."

While Germany are living up their nation's reputation for improving as tournaments go on, Denmark must hope they have not peaked too soon. "Every coach wants to have momentum: victory, victory and victory," said Frank.

"I know the German squad has this tradition of always being there when you have to perform. One thing that is so important to my team is hunger. We just want to be better. We have reached this goal but we just want more and to go to the final. We are happy and we are celebrating – we are proud – but we want more."

Freund and his patched-up side will be out to stop them doing just that, but the former international midfielder knows it will not be easy. "They try to go forward, they play creative football and have strong individual class on the ball in the whole squad," he said. "They qualified after two games and that's strong, really strong, against the favourites France, and Serbia, the home side."