News For the first time since reunification in 1990, Germany has qualified for the men's football tournament at the Olympic Games Confirmation was published on International Federation website  Two years after winning the World Cup, the Germans will have another shot at victory at Rio de Janeiro’s famous Maracanã Stadium at the upcoming Games in 2016 The Olympic spot was secured in Prague on Tuesday (23) after a 1-1 tie with hosts, the Czech Republic, resulted in a place in the European Championship semi-finals for the German team Denmark also booked their Olympic ticket in the men's football in Prague after defeating Serbia by 2-0 and going forward to the semi-finals The two European teams now join Brazil and Argentina in the official line-up for the Olympic men's football so far On Wednesday (24) the two semi-finalists from Group B will be decided in matches between England-Italy and Portugal-Sweden, with two more Olympic tickets up for grabs So far, Portugal have a total of four points, while England and Sweden have three, and Italy one Although England has every chance of making it to the European Championship semi-finals, they are ineligible to qualify for the Olympic Games as the football federations of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales have failed to reach an agreement about how to represent Great Britain in 2016 The stars of Germany’s European Under-21 team included goalkeeper Ter Stegen, who helped lift the cup in Barcelona at the 2015 European Champions League, and the Borussia Dortmund defender, Matthias Ginter, who was in the squad that won the World Cup in 2014 The last time the Germans took part in an Olympic men's football competition was as West Germany in Seoul 1988, where the team took the bronze medal after beating Italy by 3-0 In the semi-final, the Germans, (who counted football icon Jürgen Klinsmann among its number), were eventually defeated by the Brazilian team (which included Romário, Bebeto and Taffarel), on penalties (4-3) after 1-1 tie at the end of normal and extra time Prior to that, East Germany had taken to the podium four times, with a gold in 1976, one silver in 1980 and two bronzes, in 1964 and 1972 The remaining vacancies in the men's football at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games will be decided via upcoming continental tournaments From each of the Asian and African tournaments, the top three teams will go through to the Olympics The top two teams from the North and Central American and Caribbean (CONCACAF) championship will qualify, as well as the winner of the Oceania tournament A third CONCACAF team will fight for an Olympic spot in a play-off against Colombia, which was runner-up at the 2015 South American U-20 Youth Football Championship in February As the host country, Brazil has its place guaranteed In the women’s category, the Olympic Games qualifying process is similar, with each continental confederation entitled to a certain maximum number of places Rio2016 com is not an absolute authority on qualification for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, which is an ongoing process Final places will only be confirmed in July 2016 (for the Olympic Games) and August 2016 (for the Paralympic Games) The qualification systems are defined by each sport’s respective International Federation and the International Olympic Committee or International Paralympic Committee, and are subject to change When an athlete or team wins a quota place for their nation, the final decision on whether this ‘slot’ is used and which athletes are sent is taken by the respective National Olympic Committee or National Paralympic Committee (NOC or NPC) Even when athletes win a ‘nominal’ place for themselves, NOCs/NPCs may have to decide who to send if the number of qualified athletes from one country exceeds the quota