Preview for England Underneath-21 v Netherlands Underneath 21
England Underneath-21s lastly confirmed the sort of type befitting the defending champions in swatting apart Spain within the European Championship quarter-final on Sunday.
Lee Carsley’s males superior to the knockout phases with out hitting high gear however appeared a very good facet in seeing off the Spanish in Trnava.
After driving their luck early on, targets from James McAtee and Harvey Elliott put the Younger Lions in management and regardless that Javi Guerra’s penalty halved the deficit, Elliot Anderson’s late penalty secured a deserved win.
The end result and efficiency was vindication for Carsley, whose tactical strategy had been questioned following three underwhelming shows in Slovakia.
“I mentioned this group would click on,” he instructed UEFA afterwards. “We’d clicked in elements, however for 75% of this recreation I believed we have been excellent – excellent, even – and there’s nonetheless extra to return. We are able to preserve constructing on what we’ve achieved.”
Carsley is aware of the Dutch will probably be robust opposition, although.
He added: “We’ve been watching the Netherlands for possibly six months. One of many issues we do between camps is watch the highest groups and I’d positively put them in that bracket. They’re an thrilling group, a group that we’ll be absolutely ready for and we are going to look ahead to the sport.”
Jong Oranje additionally limped by way of the group part and needed to beat Ukraine of their last recreation to ensure progress.
Their quarter-final show was memorable for a outstanding present of resilience as they beat Portugal 1-0 regardless of being decreased to 10 males after 21 minutes when Ruben van Bommel, the son of former Barcelona and Bayern Munich enforcer Mark, was dismissed.
Geovany Quenda missed a penalty for Portugal and Netherlands supplied the final word sucker punch with 5 minutes to go when Ernest Poku scored the winner on the counter.
Netherlands boss Michael Reiziger mentioned: “I’m very happy with the work my gamers did. They fought for each metre on the sphere, on the pitch. It was a victory that we needed to go very deep for.”
The winners will face both Germany or France in Saturday’s last.
