The England U21 team are set to take on Germany U21 in the semi-finals of the Euro Under-21 Championship on Tuesday at the Stadion miejski in Poland. This is big news for English football as the youth team at least have been performing well during major tournaments as compared to the senior team.
The England football team has not been able to live up to all the hype in any major tournament for a long time now but that could change now. While the senior England team have a lot of work to do after their humiliating loss to Iceland in the Euro 2016, the youth team has been impressing fans lately.
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Since the senior team's disappointment at the Euro 2016, the Under-17 team reached the finals of the Euro Under-17 Championship, the Under-20 team went on to win the World Cup in South Korea recently, and now the Under-21 team is one win away from reaching the final.
The three lions topped their group to make it to this stage of the tournament but they face a completely different test against Germany, who have some of the most promising young players in their team. England coach Aidy Boothroyd may have to do without two key players — Nathan Redmond and Nathaniel Chalobah — and knows his team have really tough opponents.
"Both Nathaniel and Nathan have improved significantly since we took the precaution of bringing them off and Nathaniel played a part in Monday's training session towards the end," BBC quoted Boothroyd as saying.
"We want to be known as teams that win tournaments, but we know we've got a very tough opponent and we have a great deal of respect for the German team and it will be a very difficult game for us as well. I hope that we can execute the game plan. If we can we will have a good chance."
As for Germany, they finished second in their group after they lost to Italy in their final group stage match and reached the semi-finals as the best second-place team in the tournament.
This Germany team is not as strong as coach Stefan Kuntz would have wanted, as six players who would normally feature were called up to the senior squad to represent their country at the Confederations Cup in Russia. They do, however, have players such as Max Arnold and Serge Gnabry who are game changers.
Kuntz said during his pre-match press conference that he felt that England might have a slight advantage as they had a few more days to rest. He wanted his players to improve their game as they did not utilise the spaces properly against Italy.
"It could be an advantage that England have had a couple more days rest than us. But they are young players and they can handle it. It would be a small advantage. It is a 50-50 game and whoever is in best shape with their performance will win," Kuntz said.
"We need to improve our build-up game. We didn't use spaces well enough. Also we had something to lose. It is a knockout match and we will be well prepared."
Where to watch
The Euro Under-21 Championship semi-final between England and Germany is set to start at 5:00pm local time, 9:30pm IST and 12:00pm EST.
TV and live streaming information
India: TV No coverage.
UK: TV: Sky Sports 1/HD. Live streaming: Sky Sports GO.
Germany: TV: ARD Das Erste.
USA: TV: ESPN Deportes+ USA, ESPNU. Live streaming: WatchESPN.
International live streaming: YouTube.
