Lee Carsley said this week that achieving back-to-back European titles at under-21 level could help to enhance the reputation of British coaches, not to mention this group of young England players. An impressive quarter-final victory over a Spain side who were the pre-tournament favourites and intent on dishing out revenge will certainly not have done either any harm.<\/p>\n
After England struggled to reach the last eight<\/a> with an inexperienced squad that is one of the youngest in Slovakia, goals from James McAtee and Harvey Elliott \u2013 both of whom have uncertain futures at their clubs \u2013 and a late penalty from Elliot Anderson sealed another triumph for Carsley over the same opponents England saw off in the 2023 final<\/a>. With the Netherlands up next in Wednesday\u2019s semi-final in Bratislava, he is now two matches away from matching Dave Sexton\u2019s feat of winning this competition in 1982 and 1984.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the first half we were so good,\u201d said Carsley. \u201cThe big thing is this can\u2019t be our final \u2013 there\u2019s better nights to come.\u201d<\/p>\n Spain have become regular opponents for England in the latter stages of various youth tournaments over recent years, although only their coach, Santi Denia, remained from their bad-tempered defeat in the final two years ago, when when both sides had a member of the coaching staff and a player sent off. There were similar scenes in Trnava at the final whistle as tempers flared between the benches but it was a reflection of how England had frustrated Spain after they pulled back a goal from Javi Guerra\u2019s penalty late in the first half.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was a major difference from start to finish: we were disciplined and compact,\u201d said Elliott, who along with Charlie Cresswell is the only surviving member of the 2023 triumph in Georgia. \u201cWe trusted in our own ability. The football was incredible, we need to take a lot from this into the next game.\u201d<\/p>\n James McAtee opens the scoring in the 10th minute. Photograph: Petr David Josek\/AP<\/p>\n Carsley\u2019s side looked like they might be overwhelmed in the first two minutes when Diego L\u00f3pez headed over from close range and the Italian referee, Simone Sozza, pointed to the spot for the first time after a powerful shot from L\u00f3pez struck Cresswell on the arm. But the video assistant referee saw it differently and \u2013 to the Toulouse defender\u2019s relief as he pumped his fist in celebration \u2013 the penalty was overturned.<\/p>\n That proved to be the wake-up call England needed. McAtee looks likely to leave Manchester City this summer, having been allowed to play here rather than travel to the Club World Cup, and showed his eye for goal when he was quickest to react after Spain made a hash of clearing Alex Scott\u2019s corner.<\/p>\n Jarell Quansah was the architect of the second after Birmingham\u2019s Jay Stansfield, leading the line one of four changes from the defeat to Germany in midweek, forced a loose pass. The Liverpool defender is on the verge of joining Bayer Leverkusen for \u00a330m, while Elliott\u2019s future at Anfield is also in question following the arrival of Florian Wirtz from the German club. But when Quansah strode forward and unleashed a shot that was not convincingly saved, Elliott was on hand to turn in the rebound. Suddenly England were rampant.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to Football Daily<\/p>\n Kick off your evenings with the Guardian’s take on the world of football<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Spain\u2019s Mateo Joseph and England\u2019s Charlie Cresswell were part of a full-time confrontation between the two teams. Photograph: Petr David Josek\/AP<\/p>\n Spain looked dazed and were grateful to be handed a lifeline from the spot. Scott gave the ball away in a dangerous area and when Quansah tripped Alberto Moleiro, this time there was no debate as Guerra swept home the penalty.<\/p>\n England looked determined to finish the job at the start of the second half but Stansfield\u2019s touch let him down following another surging run from Quansah and his shot deflected over, with Cresswell heading the corner inches wide. There were hearts in mouths when a cross from the right fizzed across the six-yard area but Cresswell came to England\u2019s rescue with an acrobatic clearance.<\/p>\n Spain continued to press for an equaliser and Jack Hinshelwood could have settled Carsley\u2019s nerves had he directed a free header from Anderson\u2019s cross on target rather than over the crossbar. But when the substitute Jonathan Rowe was brought down by Alejandro Iturbe in injury time, Anderson made no mistake with his penalty, before an ugly confrontation in which members of Spain\u2019s coaching staff had to be separated from their England counterparts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lee Carsley said this week that achieving back-to-back European titles at under-21 level could help to enhance the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":203808,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5312],"tags":[2000,299,104],"class_list":{"0":"post-203807","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spain","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-spain"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114724149893135017","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203807\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}