Preview for England Below-21 v Netherlands Below 21
England Below-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 prime gear however regarded an excellent facet in seeing off the Spanish in Trnava.
After using their luck early on, objectives from James McAtee and Harvey Elliott put the Younger Lions in management and although Javi Guerra’s penalty halved the deficit, Elliot Anderson’s late penalty secured a deserved win.
The consequence and efficiency was vindication for Carsley, whose tactical strategy had been questioned following three underwhelming shows in Slovakia.
“I stated this staff would click on,” he advised UEFA afterwards. “We’d clicked in components, however for 75% of this sport I assumed we had been excellent – excellent, even – and there’s nonetheless extra to come back. We will hold constructing on what we’ve achieved.”
Carsley is aware of the Dutch will likely 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 undoubtedly put them in that bracket. They’re an thrilling staff, a staff that we’ll be totally ready for and we are going to look ahead to the sport.”
Jong Oranje additionally limped by the group section and needed to beat Ukraine of their closing sport to ensure progress.
Their quarter-final show was memorable for a exceptional present of resilience as they beat Portugal 1-0 regardless of being lowered 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 stated: “I’m very pleased with the work my gamers did. They fought for each metre on the sector, 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 closing.
