June 22 – The European U21 Championship is underway as Europe’s best youngsters compete against each other for the title.
Tournament co-hosts Georgia got the action off to a thrilling start with a 2-0 win against Portugal, beaten finalists two years ago, on the opening night Wednesday.
Neighbours Belgium and the Netherlands drew in the other Group A encounter while Ukraine won 2-0 against Croatia in Group B.
The other co-hosts Romania lost 3-0 to five-time winners Spain in the day’s late kick-off.
Georgia produced a shock on their group stage debut, scoring with both of their attempts on target to beat Portugal, who had Tomás Araújo sent off 14 minutes from time, in front of 24,425 fans in Tbilisi.
Portugal had some familiar names in their squad, including Wolves’ forward Pedro Neto and Arsenal full-back Nuno Tavares who has been plying his trade at Marseille this season. They had 17 attempts but failed to convert any.
Ukraine also defied the odds to beat Croatia, quarterfinalists last time out. But there was no upset in Bucharest as Spain swept past Romania and have now lost just one of their last 17 games.
England are vying to become under-21 champions for the first time since 1984 but Germany are another of the teams to beat as they begin the Euros as reigning champions following their triumph against Portugal in 2021.
Both England and Germany play their opening games today, England versus the Czech republic and Germany up against Israel.
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