Full-time: England 2-2 Germany (3-4 on pens)
England exit the tournament with a familiar tale of woe. It was a fair result, too, as Germany were the better team throughout the match and would have won in normal time if not for shoddy finishing. That is not to say England were without merit, however, as there were some individual performances from them throughout the tournament and they did cause Germany problems today, especially from setpieces. But Germany earned their right to contest the final against Italy or Spain.
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Germany beat England 4-3 on penalties after a 2-2 draw
Redmond sends a gentle shot at a comfortable height towards the keeper, who bats the ball away to secure Germany’s passage to the final.
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Amiri fires low into the net, jsut beyond the fingertips of Pickford. Germany 4-3 England
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Ward-Prowse curls it splendidly into the corner. Germany 3-3 England.
Meyer sends Pickford the wrong way and scores. Germany 3-2 England.
Chilwell scores with high class, tucking the ball into the corner as the keeper goes the other way. Germany 2-2 England.
Philipp, who shot dreadfully duriong the match, drives a fine shot into the corner. Germany 2-1 England
Abraham gives Germany a reprieve with a weak spotkick that is easily saved by Pollesbeck! Germany 1-1 England
Pickford saves from Gerhardt! Germany 1-1 England.
Baker slams a perfect spotkick low into the corner with his right foot. Germany 1-1 England
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Arnold leathers it down the middle as Pickford plunges to his right. Germany 1-0 England
Germany will take the first penalty.
Full-time: England 2-2 Germany. Penalty shootout to come ...
England have doggedly ridden their luck and now have the chance to prove their mettle from the spot. Germany’s shooting from open play has been erratic so far and there’s been a clear flakiness to go with their superior skill and groove. Never can an English team have approach a shootout against Germany with so much confidence ...
ET 30 min: Amiri dabs a soft freekick into the wall. There’s that German flakiness again.
ET 29 min: Freekick to Germany following a foul by Mawson on Philipp. It’s just outside the D, almost dead centre. Clear and present danger ...
ET 28 min: Abraham backtracks and breaks up a German attack.
ET 26 min: Pickford does well to punch the ball far too safety as two Germans jumped with him in an effort to get on the end of a cross from the right.
ET 24 min: The superb Toljan wreaks havoc again down the right, nutmegging Chilwell before lashing a low pass across the face of goal. Amiri seems certain to convert from close range ... but he misses the ball! Another stroke of luck for England! More flakiness from Germany! Daring to dream yet?
Et 22 min: Arnold booked for ranting at the referee after conceding a freekick for what he believed to be a foul by Redmond. Another stroke of fortune for England and, perhaps, a sign that Germany are crumbling? It’s the stuff of which famous victories are made ...
ET 21 min: It’s been a good little spell for England, who seem to have found a second wind and, while not exactly ramming Germany backwards, have disrupted their opponents’ attacking, at least.
Et 18 min: Kempf booked for deliberately handling the ball after being harassed into a mistake by Iorfa, who’s impressive introduction continues. That gives Ward-Prowse a chance to see whether Germany’s defending from set-pieces has improved. The answer is no! The keeper comes way off his line to try to intercept but gets nowhere near it. Fortunately for Germany, Chambers is unable to direct his header on target from a tough angle and while off-balance because of a defender’s challenge.
ET 16 min: Iorfa’s first impact is encouraging! He marauds down the right and digs out a good cross. Swift rises high above a defender to meet it buts nuts it a couple of yards wide from near the penalty spot.
England substitution: Wolves’ Dominic Iorfa on for the first time in the tournament, Holgate off.
Half-time in extra-time: England 2-2 Germany
Pickford makes another save just before the break and then England hurtle down the other end and create an actual chance, their first for a long time. Baker shanked the ball wide from 16 yards, looking too exhausted to execute a more accurate shot.
Et 14 min: Toljan makes yet another incisive break down the right and then tees up Philipp, who skies the ball from 15 yards. His shooting has been ridiculous at times today. England might not mind if he’s one of the penalty takers.
Germany substitution: Kohr on, Haberer off. Yes, that is Germany’s fourth change. You can do that now if a match goes to extra-time. That means Boothroyd can introduce another man, which might swing things back into England’s favour if he didn’t have to take one off, too. It still looks like it’s going to be penalties or bust for England. Or penalties and bust, as older readers must fear.
ET 12 min: Corner to Germany, as Holgate stops another burst by Amiri.
ET 10 min: Germany try a bit of variety from a corner, hooking the ball out to Arnold, who tries a volley from 25 yards. It flies beyond the scope of any of the stadium’s cameras.
ET 8 min: Germany are totally dominant. In one way, that’s going to make things even more satisfying if England manage to sneak a victory in a shootout ...
ET 6 min: England send a long ball down the right-hand channel. Redmond chases, forcing Gerhardt into a risky back pass to the keeper, who wellies clear under pressure from Abraham. That probably has to qualify as England’s best move for about half an hour.
ET 4 min: Amiri fires in another shot, a decent effort this time from 20 yards. Pickford catches it comfortably.
ET 3 min: England are being cut to ribbons. With passes, flicks, cute running and one canny backheel, Germany manoeuvre into another dangerous position, only to let England off with another bad finish, Amiri slicing wide from close range.
ET 1 min: Germany canter down England’s right-hand side far too easily. Meyer pulls the back to Toljan, who crosses towards the back post. Pickford gets one hand to it but only parries it to Amiri, who can’t react quick enough to do anything other than let the ball bounce off him and back into the arms of a mightily relieved goalkeeper! That, for England, is top technicians call a very jammy break.
ET 1: Germany take the latest kick-off and, in doing so, complete their 2,367th pass of the match.
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Full-time: England 2-2 Germany
It’s been an entertaining game so far. The evidence so far suggests Germany are the more likely to progress because they have far more control of the game and have reduced England to clinging on for long periods. But England have hope: Germany’s finishing has been pretty sloppy and so has their defending from set-pieces, in particular. There’s every chance there’ll be more goals in extra-time; but England look like they’d take a penalty shootout now. Ah, the confidence/innocence of youth.
90+3 min: At least another two minutes for England to hang on ... mind you, it’s not clear what they plan to do in extra-time to reverse the tide. Maybe they’re hanging on for penalties? Against Germany? This might just be a seminal moment in the emergence of The New England....
90+1 min: Amiri blast from 25 yards takes a nick off a defender and goes out for a corner. Arnold sends it over .. and Kempf (along with another German) is totally unmarked at the back post. He nods feebly wide. What a let-off for England, and what a shoddy way that would have been to be eliminated! But they have been looking increasingly knackered by all the chasing they’ve had to do for a lot of this game.
89 min: Germany look to be in total charge at the moment. England have 10 men around their own box, seemingly clinging on for extra-time.
Germany substitution: Amiri on, Gnabry off. Amiri, of Hoffenheim, scored the winner against England in that friendly in March ...
England substitution: Swift on, Hughes off.
86 min: Redmond bangs a low shot a couple of yards wide from the edge of the box.
85 min: Murphy aiming a long raking pass towards Abraham. But Pollersbeck gambols off his line to intercept. There are pigeons in Trafalgar Square who’ve been given better service than Abraham in the last while.
83 min: Holgate booked for leading with his arm as he jumped into an aerial duel with Gerhardt.
82 min: Gnabry booked for a foul on somebody. I didn’t see him but, even worse, England did not appear to notice Gnaby a few moments later, when he popped up at the edge of their area to collect a pass and curl a shot ... just wide!
81 min: It has been 17 years since England beat Germany at a tournament at any level. Boothroyd’s boys need to stage a heck of a late rally to write history. Or, perhaps, just get another corner, since Germany are a mess when trying to defend them.
Germany substitution: Kehrer on, Jung off.
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78 min: Germany motor down the right. Meyer curls over a cross to Platte, who heads past Pickford from eight yards! But it’s ruled out for offside. He can’t believe it and there is no video replay in use here by the officials so there’s no chance of it being overturned. The quick replay I caught a glance off suggest the linesman got it right by a matter of millimetres.
76 min: Germany are streaming forward from all angles now and England are looking decidedly ragged.
England substitution: Redmond on, Gray off.
74 min: England are on the rack. Pickford makes one close-range save and then, moments later, can only parry a long shot by Philipp. Here comes another corner for Germany. England defend it soundly enough.
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73 min: After yet more canny probing by Germany, Gnabry slips an incisive pass through to Philipp, who really should score from 12 yards with only Pickford to beat. But he drags his shot wide of the far post!
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GOAL! England 2-2 Germany (Platte 70)
The substitute score with a splendid near-post header from an out-swinging corner, Holgate unable to do anything to put him off. It was too powerful for Pickford to stop.
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69 min: England retreat as Germany rumble forward again. Haberer considers clipping the ball into the box from 30 yards but then, noticing he’s not being closed down, edges his way forward and has a pop from 25 yards. It’s deflected behind for a corner.
67 min: Toljan gets on the wrong side of Gray again down the right but Gray recovers and tips the ball off his toe and behind for a corner.
England substitution: Murphy on, Chalobah off. The Chelsea player, whose left-hand hamstring has been strapped up since the start, limps off. Murphy has done very well off the bench so far in tournament, playing a different role each time, from right-back to striker.
Germany substitution: Platte on, Selke off.
63 min: Nice move by Germany, initiated as ever by Arnold and almost concluded by Meyer, who pulls the ball back from the sideline after sneaking behind the English defence. Chambers put the ball out for a corner, which comes to nothing.
61 min: Gnabry jinks in off the left wing and starts to wind up a shot before Holgate pokes the ball off his foot. Selke, meanwhile, has hobbled off to receive treatment to a leg injury of some sort. No idea how it happened.
59 min: Chilwell booked for taking out Philipp after the German gets on the wrong side of him. Chilwell can’t argue with that. But he does anyway.
58 min: A period of prolonged pressure from Germany, with most of it again coming down the left. A cross by Gerhardt bounces all the way across the face of England’s goal, with Gray’s failing to cut it out at the back post before Toljan pokes the ball into the sidenetting from a difficult angle!
57 min: The way that both sides are finding spaces in the opposing defence suggests the scoring is far from finished in this game ...
55 min: England have plugged the holes on their right-hand side but now Germany are finding gaps down the left. Gerhardt careers down that wing again and lets fly from the corner of the box, his shot deflected behind for a corner.
54 min: Snappy interchange between Gerhardt and Gnabry down the left flank. Gerhardt then pings in a low cross. Pickford drops on to it and holds it safely.
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52 min: England resume probing but England are looking more solid than they did in the first half, as Baker has been repositioned to provide more support to Holgate on the right and Hughes is playing a tad more centrally. Abraham is on his own up front.
GOAL! England 2-1 Germany (Abraham 50)
England make another strong start to a half and this time they capitalise! They pressurise Germany into making a mistake at the back, Gnabry losing possession. Hughes is quick to pounce, seizing on the ball in the box and cutting towards the byline before pulling it back for Abraham, who slots into the net from close range!
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49 min: Gray wriggles his way past one opponent and heads for the box. Then he unleashes a shot that his put behind for a corner. The goalkeeper decides he’s best not leaving it to his clueless defenders to, so he bounds off his line and punches Ward-Prowse’s delivery away.
47 min: Germany raid down the left, for a change, and Holgate’s puts Gerhardt’s cross out for a corner. Meyer sends it over but Pickford punches clear. Germany soon win it back, however, and work the ball back to Meyer at the corner of the England box. He rifles a low shot goalward. Pickford gets down well to save and hold.
46 min: England kick off the second half. Both teams are unchanged.
Half-time: England 1-1 Germany
England started and finished the half very well but were outplayed during the middle bit. When Germany took the lead, a comeback looked unlikely, as Germany’s passing and movement was leaving Boothroyd’s men chasing desperately. But the German seem entirely clueless about defending set-pieces and England could have scored from a couple even before Gray struck an equaliser just before half-time. There’ll be no shame in trying to continue to exploit that in the second half so England have a strong chance of winning here - so long as they do something to stem the flow of attacks down their right-hand side and also get more of a grip in midfield, where Arnold, in particular, is pretty much running the show.
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44 min: England demand a penalty after Arnold catches Abraham with an arm as he striker tries to find space in the box in anticipation of a through-ball. Abraham is hurt, but the ref saw nothing, which is very lucky for Arnold.
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43 min: Baker fires a low pass from the edge of his own box to Gray, halfway inside England’s midfield. THe Leicester man offloads daintily to Hughes, who sends an immediate pass over the top of the GErman defence. Abraham is faster than his opponents and if he can take the ball down, he’ll have a free shot on goal! But his touch betrays him, as he donks the ball back to the keeper.
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GOAL! England 1-1 Germany (Gray 41)
England are level and how they needed that! Again an English corner caused chaos, with Chambers winning it easily. His shot was blocked but fell to Gray, who calmly guided a left-footed volley into the net from seven yards!
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41 min: Holgate hurls a long throw into the area. Kempt holds off Mawson but discombobulates himself in the process and heads behind to concede a corner. Set-piece look England’s most likely source of a goal now ...
39 min: England can’t get the ball. And they’re struggling to keep track of German runners. They’re in danger of sinking here ...
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37 min: Germany are not sated. They’re going back for more. Yet again they make inroads down the right. Toljan’s low shot is deflected to Meyer, who tries to sidefoot it into the net from 18 yards. But it flies way over.
GOAL! England 0-1 Germany (Selke 34)
It’s been coming. Meyer slides a nice pass through to Toljan, who had made a burst down the right and into the box. Toljan then chips a lovely cross into the centre, where Selke directs a powerful diving header into the net from eight yards.
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33 min: England are opened up yet again, Philipp running on to a pass before side-stepping Chambers and shooting from the edge of the area. Fortunately for England it’s a woeful effort, as he shanks it way off target. It’s pretty amazing that this match is still 0-0.
32 min: Toljan lopes down the right and then dodges Hughes and let fly with a shot from 25 yards. It takes a deflection off Chalobah, whose relieved to see Pickford push the ball over.
30 min: England are doing an awful lot of chasing. Their vibrant start must be starting to feel like a distant memory, and how they must lament those early miss.
28 min: The pressure from Germany is building. They’re pulling England hither and thither with their clever passing and movement. Philipp and Meyer combined well just now before Selke curled over from the edge of the box. It’s been a while since England looked dangerous at the other end.
26 min: This time it’s Germany who go close from a set-piece, as Philipp flicks on Arnold’s corner at the near post. Hughes has to lunge at the ball at the back post to prevent an opponent from prodding it into the net.
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25 min: Germany are controlling possession now and have a clear upper hand in midfield, where Arnold and Haberer are looking especially authoritative.
23 min: Arnold pings a pass out to Toljan, who raise his foot high like a ballerina to control the ball with appropriate grace. Then he tries to top that by blasting into the net from 20 yards, but his shot is off target.
21 min: Another nice move by Germany. They’re getting into their groove now and creating plenty of bother. Philipp canters down the right and rolls a pass into the Selke, who wraps his foot around it and has as first-time pop from 16 yards. He was hoping to guide it into the top corner but sent it to close to Pickford, who saved easily.
20 min: Selke booked for a foul on Chalobah.
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19 min: Germany can’t cope with England’s setpieces, invariably delivered precisely by Ward-Prowse. The Southampton player has just sent over an out-swinging corner from the right and Abraham met it free seven yards out. But Pollersbeck claws his header away!
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17 min: Now that was classy! Arnold drifted in from the lefted and then plopped a beautifully dinked pass into the path of Gnabry, who darted stealthily past the English defence. Pickford rushes off his line in the hope of beating Gnabry to it but the forward gets there first ... and heads over him ... and wide!
15 min: Ward-Prowse brings a comfortable save with a reasonable, bobbly shot from 15 yards.
14 min: Germany have been quite ponderous in possession so far, trying to build slowly from the back. England have been relatively sharper all over the pitch and, most pleasingly, their zippiness is allied to composure. Basically, they look like they know what they’re doing and believe they can see it through. That’s progress.
12 min: Selke nudges the ball past Chambers and then tries to dash after it and into the box. But Chambers recovers sufficiently to poke it off the German’s toe, and Mawson completes the rescue operation.
10 min: Hughes booked for a slightly clumsy sliding tackle on Arnold in midfield.
8 min: Ward-Prowse wins possession in midfield and then plays a cute ball to Hughes, who carried it forward and then slips in Gray, who had made a clever run. Gray’s first shot is blocked by a defender but the ball rebounds back to him and he tries to clip it past the advancing goalkeeper, who makes a fine save with one hand. Jung gets back to tidy up as a panicky Germany scramble the ball clear. It’s been an impressive start by England but they’ll be slightly miffed that they’re not a goal up already.
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6 min: Ward-Prowse flights over a corner from the right with his customary accuracy. Chalobah leaps high above Philip and heads ... over the bar from five yards! A golden chance spurned!
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4 min: Nifty play by Hughes, who skedaddles into the box and to the byline before cutting the ball back towards Abraham. But a German player gets back stick it out for a corner, depriving the striker of a tap-in!
3 min: Penalty? No! Selke got in front of Chambersw as he tried to latch on to a clever through-ball and the striker then went down in the box after being clipped by Chambers. There was definite contact and the Germans appeal for a spotkick. But the ref waves away their claims, apparently deciding that Selke was responsible for the contact, rather than the defender.
2 min: Chambers aims a long pass from the back towards Baker, who made a run from deep to demand it. But it’s slightly over hit and he can’t get on the end of it, but gives the thumbs up to salute the intention.
1 min: The stadium announcer leads a countdown to kick off. 5-4-3-2-1 and ... nothing, because the ref’s not ready. Ten seconds later Germany are given permission to get the game going.
England are wearing all in white, save for the red socks. Germany are wearing a curious marshy green and black ensemble.
Here come the teams, into a stadium a warm atmosphere in Tychy despite there being plenty of empty seats. It looks about 80%, and all maintain a respectful silence during the national anthems.
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Ten minutes to kick off. Time to make your tea and run through any pre-match routines. Quick, go get those lucky underpants out of the laundry basket!
So Abraham returns to the starting lineup in place of Nathan Redmond, who did more or less adequately in the previous matches but not as well as Demarai Gray, who deservedly retains his starting place after his excellent showing against Poland, when his combination with his Leicester team-mate Ben Chilwell, in particular, was one of the highlights of England’s performance.
As for Germany, Ed Aarons tweets thusly:
Interesting change from Germany. Max Philipp starts instead of Weiser on the right flank. Forward has just joined Borussia Dortmund for €20m
— Ed Aarons (@ed_aarons) June 27, 2017
TEAMS
England: Pickford; Holgate, Chambers, Mawson, Chilwell; Chalobah, Ward-Prowse, Hughes, Gray; Baker, Abraham.
Subs: Gunn, Stephens, Redmond, Targett, Murphy, Swift, Holding, Hause, Iorfa, Grealish, Woodrow, Mitchell.
Germany: Pollersbeck; Toljan, Stark, Kempf, Gerhardt;
Haberer; Philipp, Meyer, Arnold, Gnabry; Selke.
Subs: Schwabe, Anton, Jung, Dahoud, Platte, Klunter, Kehrer, Weiser, Amiri,
Oztunali, Kohr, Vlachodimos.
Referee: Gediminas Mazeika (Lithuania)
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Preamble
Hello and welcome to the latest check point on English football’s uncertain road towards glory. After the U-20s won the World Cup and the U-17s reached the final of the European Championship, beating Germany today to reach the final of the U-21 European Championship would provide yet more evidence that English kids are alright and the senior team may soon benefit from an influx of young players with good skills, no complexes and a record of unprecedented success. Whatever happens, just don’t call it a golden generation.
Aidy Boothroyd’s team have reason to be confident today. They have improved radically as this tournament has gone on, having been on the brink of elimination in their second match before an excellent turn-around against a strong Slovakian side, a victory that the young lions followed up with a comprehensive dismissal of an admittedly feeble Poland team. Germany should prove altogether tougher even if they, unlike England, did not win their group, having finished second behind Italy.
England are well aware that the Germans are cut above any of the sides they have faced so far, as many of today’s lineup were in the side that were outclassed by Germany in a friendly in March on the way to a misleadingly narrow 1-0 defeat. Then again, that was only a friendly and England should also know that reading too much into friendlies is a fool’s habit. Boothroyd says that no matter how good the Germans are, England have enough quality to beat them so he won’t be tolerating any talk about gallant losers if his team belie the emerging trend and fail to deliver on the big occasion. ‘If someone said to me after the match, if we’ve lost: ‘Well done for getting to the semi-final,’ I won’t like that,” boomed a manager who is revamping his own reputation as he helps change the mentality of his country’s footballers. “This is the sort of issue that we have. In order for us to be better, we’ve got to go and win these games. You’ve got to make these opportunities count.” Can the young lions deliver? Just how good are they? That’s what we’re here to find out.
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