June 29 – Germany’s young guns went the same way as the senior World Cup side when they were eliminated from the European under-21 championship in the group stage.
The defending champions were beaten 2-0 by England who made it three wins from three in Batumi, Georgia, with two goals in the opening 21 minutes from Cameron Archer and Harvey Elliott.
While the Germans will rue taking just one point in the group stage, the first time in 10 years they have failed to reach the knockout stage, England can now look forward to meeting Portugal in the quarter-final on Sunday.
England coach Lee Carsley hailed the cutting edge shown by his side. “We were fortunate to take our chances,” he said. “Germany had some really good chances but didn’t take them. We’re really happy with the result but more importantly the performance.
“We thought it was a really difficult game. We knew preparing for the game that it was going to be a tough one. We were lucky enough to play Germany in one of the international windows in a friendly. We knew the quality that they had. Tactically they’re very difficult to break down and you’ve seen that in the game today.”
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