UEFA European U21 Championships

[Dynamite]

Wasn't Welbeck a part of the team?

[IAceI]

Injured.

And Milner's 23 so he'll have probably just been eligible when the qualification started. He'll be handy to have for sure, will be his final time with the team so hopefully he does well.

[Matt]

Is Milner back in the U21s now? I was hoping he'd get a run out against Andorra.

[Cadj]

I believe Milner is still with the Senior team but will go back to the U21s after the Andorra game.

[Matt]

Ah, that's pretty much perfect then, he can play against Andorra and the guide England to victory in the U21s.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Yeah isn't Lennon still available in theory despite, like Milner not really being young enough.

Milner seems to have been around for a long time. I used to try to buy him in Football Manager when he was 17 and it's only now, six years later, that he's showing some of that early potential.

[Cadj]

The England U21s are on Setanta now playing the Azerbaijan U21s.

No Andy Driver in the team, not even on the bench

Probably being rested as he was carrying an injury.

And Mancienne just scored in 50 seconds.

[IAceI]

If you're Under 21 years old at the first qualifying game, you're fine for the tournament. Not sure what Lennon's status was, you'd imagine he'd be here if he could be though but not sure why he isn't if he is available.

People wonder why 23 year olds are allowed to play but they never seem to click that it would be a bit harsh if you played every qualifying game - got to the championships and were told you were too old so couldn't play anymore. It's a weird one.

[Matt]

Lennon is younger than Milner, I'm 100% certain of that. I guess he isn't playing because he's been in the main squad for the majority of the time and it's not good courtesy to play him for the Euros and leave out someone who's played a lot of the games.

Rooney is probably just about elligible too, he's only a couple of months older than Milner, but you wouldn't expect him to play.

[Cadj]

England U21s just beat Azerbaijan U21s 7-0.

Well it's in the 91st minute.

[Matt]

Is Joe Lewis really playing up front?

[IAceI]

I don't really expect Walcott to play either these days, he's pretty much a recognised England international now. But he said that he wanted to play in the U21's, good on him. We could use him.

[IAceI]

Players To Watch

This may be very shaky and out, but I'll give it a go using what knowledge I do have. Some of these names will ring a bell with you already, some might not I don't know, just trying to list some of the players that might get the spotlight at the tournament? Take everything with a pinch of salt, I haven't got loads of information stored in my brain on these guys so comparisons to other players may not be quite perfect, I'm trying though!

England we all pretty much know, Walcott and the like. I'm hoping out defence does better than I expect, Richards wants to step up and get his arse in gear. Gibbs may look less out of place here than he has in Champions League semi finals, so this might be a better indicater of his abilities.

Spain Miguel Torres in defence. Contracted to Real Madrid. Should do well at right wing back, probably going to be bombing forward a bit in typical Spanish style. Javi Martinez is midfield, contracted to Athletic Bilbao, and Basque as well! All round centre midfielder in the Fabregas mould I believe with an all round ability, possibly their driving force from the heart of the pitch. Diego Capel, very very quick with poncy hair - and we should all know Bojan Krkic, if they progress I'd like to see how he handles a Spain vs. Serbia match.

Germany Yeah, not too sure of this team. Can see them going out in the group stages almost, they just scraped through. Don't recognised too many names, Mats Hummels is about 18/19 and is at Bayern. He's got another go at this tournament beyond this one so not sure what he'll do here - but I think he's quite highly touted so he may play a bit here. Centre back his primary position but he's just one of those deep sitting Germans who will probably tackle really hard. Mesut Ozil is a wide attacking player for Werder, with a very non German name too, it's Turkish in fact. Anyways - he plays a lot and is only 20 so he must be good. Not too sure about their strikers, two of them have African sounding names so I imagine they're fast [/stereotype].

Finland They came back from the brink to get in ahead of Austria. Tim Sparv is their only player who rings a bell to me, a really tall and powerful midfielder who is captain, leader and everything - I figure he's carrying the team. Problem was he moved to Sweden because he couldn't get regular games at Southampton - which doesn't sound too promising. As a whole I think the team benefit from organisation and belief rather than out-right ability, but it's a stage for someone to step up and show us they can one day play in the Premiership, La Liga or Serie A so they'll give it their all. Sorry I couldn't be more help.

That was Group B, now I'll do Group A.

Belarus Well, I do like Belarus. Both full international and youth. To get to the final 8 of the U21 shows that they have something about them, and their national team isn't doing too badly in a group consisting of England, Croatia and Ukraine. As a former Soviet nation it's not hard to imagine a lot of organisation and tactical play is in the fore. Like Finland, I struggle to pick a player out. Sergei Kryvets the pick of the bunch in the middle of the park, I know he plays in Belarus and scored against Juventus in the Champions League. The name Mikhail Afansiev also rings a bell but that's about it!

Sweden They didn't have to qualify which makes picking a player out even harder. It's got to be Marcus Berg though, their star striker. He plys his trade for Groningen so maybe one of the Dutch members can tells us more about him - has an average of over a goal every two games I believe so you can't complain really. Not sure about the rest of their team but he can possibly get them a goal or two and help them out. Would be good for morale to see the hosts do well at the tournament.

Italy With my bias - I think England have possibly the best team to win the tournament, but Italy's are just as good probably. You have a pick of anyone really, and you've probably heard of most of them yourself. Daniele Dossenna of Parma in midfield, Robert Acquafresca up front as well as FM[insert numbers i want to say 05 here] legened Alessio Cerci also there. Probably the one I want to watch the most though is Mario Balotelli, ignoring our home players it's been a while since a I know a player of this potential and ability already coming to play in the U21 tournament. He probably doesn't need to, but I can see Italy banging in a few in the course of this tournament.

Serbia As last years finalists I really should know more, but suffice to say I don't. No doubt strong at the back, particularly with Hertha Berlin's Gojko Kacar in defence though he can sit just in front of the back four equally as good. Their star man without a doubt, he was at the tournament two years ago but hardly feautred. Man Utd fans will obviously want to get a good luck at Zoran Tosic as a years gone by and most will probably have no idea what he's like, he'll be there but Adem Ljalic isn't in the team - maybe next time for him.

On paper (cliche!) I can see the semi finals being

Italy vs. Spain

England vs. Serbia

with an Italy vs. England final, but I'm just looking forward to a good tournament and looking at some players really. I'd really love to see Belarus or Sweden progress but I also like Serbia. I can't see Italy not making it, too much about them there. England are always good at U21's but then you have Spain and Germany in your group. Can't see Finland taking much but a point off someone at most.

That's the best I can do I'm afraid. Other members, particularly foreign ones, may be able to furnish us with more information but until the tournament starts - that can do ya.

[therockbox]

Bump for tonight, in case anyone's forgot. England vs. Finland kicks off at 5:15 on Sky Sports 2.

Teams:

Finland: Jaakkola, Aho, Portin, Turunen, Raitala,Hamalainen, Mehmet Hetemaj, Sparv, Perparim Hetemaj, Parikka, Sadik.

Subs: Masalin, Viljanen, Toivio, Jalasto, Otaru, Karkkainen, Aijala, Hakola, Vasara, Pukki, Kokko, Lehtovaara.

England: Hart, Cranie, Richards, Mancienne, Gibbs, Muamba, Cattermole, Noble, Milner, Agbonlahor, Walcott.

Subs: Lewis, Tomkins, Taylor, Stearman, Onuoha, Gardner, Johnson, Rodwell, Driver, Rose, Campbell, Loach.

[stokeriño]

I'm commuting from 5:15 to 6:15 so will miss most of it anyway. Might turn on the last half hour or so...if Stokerina doesn't hate me for it.

[IAceI]

It disappoints me that these matches are just given to run-of-the-mill commentators who do the Premiership stuff. Commentators who undoubtedly will make quotes like "We all know what Walcott is like from his Arsenal performances," and then cap that off with "I have to be honest. I don't really know anything about this Finland team."

For me the U21's is a different type of game and I'd imagine there are people out there who dedicate a lot of their time to the youth teams of clubs and countries, surely there's someone out there who could come in and add an opinion whether it's intermittant through matches or not. To me it's just like watching the 12:45 kick off on a Saturday morn for the Premiership.

Also I think this match is very much our pace and running against Finland's crossing and height. Doesn't really make for an amazing match where no one really has any plan B. Plus I don't like our lack of fire power even though what we have is quite good, and I feel our defence is rather weak to a point.

And as I type that Micah Richards scores a header, nullifying all my points immediately.

[IAceI]

Wow, 5-1 to Sweden over Belarus. Belarus have been all over the shop and I fear for them against Serbia and Italy, their defence doesn't know which way it's going.

Kryvets has done nothing for them, but Kislyak's goal was absolutely phenomenal. Opened the scoring 1-0 for Belarus, and then Elm, Berg (3) and then an absolute peach of a goal from Svensson have pulled them 5-1 up. They will give Italy and Serbia a good run, and I'm now rueing having Walcott as my fantasy captain and not Berg

Edited June 16, 2009 by IAceI

[METALMAN]

I'm quite surprised England had such a narrow win over Finland. I was expecting them to win by quite a larger margin.

I don't know much about Belarus U21s - or Sweden's for that matter - but perhaps a 5-1 win isn't too inconceivable.

I hope Italy wins the whole thing though. Purely because I like Balotelli on FM 09.

My prediction is for Spain to top group A with second place a straight fight between England and Germany. I'd say England go through on goal difference. I'd be surprised if Italy don't win group B. I'm expecting Serbia to follow them.

[IAceI]

England were very poor against Finland, but Finland also were a good team and well organised. Sparv and Hatemaj run the midfield quite well and pull the strings, they're also quite tall so were whipping them in to the top two and causing a bit of trouble. England need to kick their arse into gear but my worry is we're too one dimensional, the players there are possibly the best team on paper or at least very close but that defence looks a bit worrying. Especially with Mancienne now suspended for a game and Richards went off injured, Cranie however was a bright spark and if he keeps playing may get back that hype that was surrounding him some time ago. We lack firepower as well, Walcott was ineffectual but if he was on form he could obviously tear a team apart (3 against a full side Croatia, should do it U21) but we can't be too reliant. Campbell ran well second half in the last match, we could use a bigger man up there but surely one of Walcott, Campbell and Agonlahor is going to do the job? Midfield is fine.

Belarus obvioulsy have done well, they're here and France and Holland are. But they just looked absolutely clueless out there, Sweden were all over them and the Belarus defence looked particularly confused. Also Kryvets, their star man, was doing very little and in fact it was Kislyak doing all the work on top of that big effort.

I have £3 on a 4/1 Italy vs. England final.

There's a lot more to come from England, but having watched Spain vs. Germany we could very well not qualify. Krkic wasn't great (and I wasn't too surprised to be honest, there's a lot of hype on him but I did expect someone else for Spain to come into the fore), and for Germany well Mesut Ozil as expected played well. Boateng looked good in defence as well and Neuer is a top goalkeeper, maybe the best at this competition. Watching the match I was more impressed by Germany but it seems the commentators and analysts have been made sure to make pay Spain a lot of respect with them probably having the best senior team in the world. It was a close game but Germany should have won it, Ozil is just absolutely spectacular - I thought Marko Marin was also very good for Germany, they don't have any real pedigree at this level but they could do well. I wouldn't like to call this until the next set of matches because I think England still have a lot to prove, if they look unconvincing then they can probably wave goodbye to their chances.

Still think Italy will win the whole thing at the minute though, would like England too but as the tournament began I've tiled to Italy and expect them to do it. Perhaps that England performance sealed the decision just about for me.

EDIT: Also Serbia have a handful of players with full international caps, made the final last year and beat Italy on the way. Whether they'll do it again I'm unsure but I'd say Serbia will have the underdog tag and could well cause a surprise, Gojko Kacar of Hertha Berlin the one to watch there.

Edited June 16, 2009 by IAceI

[METALMAN]

I have £3 on a 4/1 Italy vs. England final.

I think I might copy you there. >_>