By Chris Wright
A rather drab, ‘hoofy’ goalless draw with Ukraine last night left the England U21s needing a three-point haul (they also drew their first game with Spain, despite being dismally outplayed) from their final Group B game against the Czech Republic to progress through to the semis – after Spain’s impressive young charges beat the Czechs 2-0 in Wednesday evening’s other tie.
As things stand, Spain top the group with four points – one point ahead of Czech Rep in second who, in turn, are one point ahead of England in third who, in turn, are one point ahead of bottom side Ukraine.
Nice and simple.
Photos…
England Under 21s (left to right, top to bottom) Kyle Walker, Danny Welbeck, Chris Smalling, Jordan Henderson, Phil Jones, ‘keeper Frank Fielding, Ryan Bertrand, Jack Rodwell, Michael Mancienne, Danny Rose and Daniel Sturridge
England coach Stuart Pearce runs through a few things with his assistants
Oleg Golodyuk and Michael Mancienne compete for possession
Liverpool new-boy Jordan Henderson steers the ball away from Oleg Golodyuk and Volodymyr Chesnakov
Jack Rowell goes in hard on Maxym Biliy
Michael Mancienne attempts an unorthodox challenge on Artem Kravets
The ‘impressive on the night’ Daniel Sturridge takes a tumble
Michael Mancienne clears one into touch after taking it off Denys Garmash’s toe
Danny Rose squeezes between Volodymyr Chesnakov, Maxym Biliy and Bohdan Butko
Danny Welbeck lands hard after fluffing a decent chance to score
Stuart Pearce remonstrates from the touchline
Daniel Sturridge chases down a loose ball
England take on water and instructions from the sidelines
Scott Sinclair hurdles Ukraine goalkeeper Anton Kanibolotskiy
Henri Lansbury is sent sprawling to the turf by Yaroslav Rakitskiy
You may be wondering why we haven’t featured any pics from the ongoing European U21 Championships in Denmark and the answer is… *whisper it* …I’ve only just found the section in the PA’s archives.
To be fair, they’d only marked it out with huge black lettering and a large red arrow pointing to the link, so it’s little wonder that I failed to see it the first time round.
Man alive, It’s almost as if they didn’t want anyone to see their photos.