European Under 21 Championships

[Starvinho]

I'm gonna go England, hoping we can take it one step further this time. Spain look very good on paper though.

[Colly]

In the absence of any decent odds for anything on Ladbrokes, and me having £4 left in my account from the end of the season burning a hole in my betting pocket I've stuck the lot on Iceland and Sigurdsson top scorer at 40/1. Hoping he bosses the group stage.

Enjoyable anthems there, love it when you can hear the players 'singing'.

[Berober]

England in the final, I'm going to say against Spain. So it'd be interesting to see who wins tomorrow.

[Lineker]

Spain to win.

[IAceI]

Pedestrian match so far, like a commentator said: "You'd think it was a testimonial." So much sideways passing you'd think England were playing as well, depressing at times. And some of the Belarussian players wouldn't look out of place with clubs and other weaponry with some of the tackles they've thrown in and how late they've been at times. Hopefully the second half is a bit of an improvement.

[stokeriño]

Advantage: Belarus

Disadvantage: Colly's bet

[IAceI]

I'm finding the kids seemingly doing laps round the stadium highly entertaining I have to say.

[stokeriño]

They were racing round to get a better view for the penalty, I assume.

[IAceI]

That's what I thought but everytime I look there's some kids running up and down steps or in some general direction.

[IAceI]

I'd heard a lot about Shaqiri pre-tournament but wanted to see with my very own eyes how good he was. His detractors would say he just shoots from wherever, although odds are sooner or later one will fly in and no one seems to whine when Gerrard does it constantly - not to mention for example if he was at Sunderland we don't have any goal scoring midfielders so that would be most welcome.

He looks every inch the player he was made out to be if not more, he just seems to have the whole package. A rasping left foot, cuts inside a lot, pace to burn and without sounding overly gay he just looks like a star - like the sort of player you expect to see playing on the biggest stage of them all. I think he's going to have a great tournament, and with teams unable to show him too much attention due to the constant running from Innocent Emenghara for example then he should be able to flourish. There was a lot of expectations on Eriksen for Denmark but the talent didn't really seem to be there around him so Switzerland could afford to give him more attention without worry of being exposed too often - although there were a few close moments where the defence fell asleep. Overall it was a much better match than the opener, but that would have been hard to have been worse. Think Group B is where most of the class is though and am thoroughly looking forward to tonights matches.

[IAceI]

For people interested the build up to Ukraine v Czech Republic is on and should be on in a few minutes. Fans of Football Manager may recognise the like of Stepaneneko, however Kadlec is injured and fans of Spurs and Southampton may remember Tomas Pekhart who is playing for Czech Republic.

I think this has the potential to be a great match, Group B seems infinitely better than Group A - in all fairness, and there are a few Kiev and Shakhtar players amongst the starting Ukraine team with European experience. Quite looking forward to this match.

Also all the teams have been updated on post 25 on the first page (depending on your settings) and I've taken out Gibbs from England and replaced Yurchenko with Perepechko. Will do another scan later perhaps to see if any other players have been ruled out of the tournament and will edit the post accordingly.

National anthems time, looking forward to this. And of course England v Spain to come later.

[IAceI]

Fielding, Walker, Smalling, Jones, Bertrand, Mancienne, Henderson, Cleverley, Rose, Sturridge, Welbeck is the starting line up for England against Spain.

Cleverley the only real surprise inclusion in the starting 11.

On Spain's side, Bojan is on the bench. Surprising? Perhaps. But I don't envy the defenders having to cope with him if he comes on with 20 minutes to go.

[stokeriño]

Starts for the two Chelsea players, being the two I actually give a damn about.

"20 goal" Danny Sturridge and Ryan Bertrand-trand-trand-trand-trand (OOO WEA OOO OOO).

Come on lads!

[IAceI]

Well Henderson and Welbeck were Sunderland players last year so I guess I'm still interested in how they do, but I am disappointed Henderson is here as a Liverpool player now and not a Sunderland player.

I'll give the lads all my support but I'm a bit worried. Derby County goalkeeper facing Adrian, Ander, Mata? Hmm. Adrian may be one to keep an eye on, Deportivo have just been relegated and he could be looking for a move back to a top league. Sure he'd probably rather stay in Spain like most of them do but a good performance could perhaps put some Premier League teams on alert?

[9 to 5]

Fielding is awesome.

[stokeriño]

Welbeck's not the top goalscorer of my Nottingham Forest 2015 squad for nothing!

[Baddar]

2129:GOAL: SPAIN 1-1 ENGLAND (Welbeck)

2128: Luis Milla's team are slowly strangling any hope of an England equaliser, decreasing their tempo while maintaining their incredible ball retention. Meanwhile, goalscorer Ander Herrera is replaced by Diego Capel.

HA. SUCK MY DICK, BBC GUY.

[IAceI]

Bit off given England have been in the ascendency for a while before their goal as well. Just they have a penchant for knocking the ball around their defenders and goalkeeper a lot, which the Danish crowd have noticed and quickly booed.

Walker was the only player worth a dime in my eyes for us this game, but the Spanish have some real quality in their team. Still, 'spirit' and 'fight' will no doubt get mentioned and a few "ING-UR-LUND"'s and we're good to go, right?

[Baddar]

Just re-wound and saw the England goal - about a yard offside, but my mate said Spain's goal was handball anyway.

Well in, Welbeck!

[Summers]

Lucky draw. Mancienne was terrible. Welbeck was terrible. Expected more of Henderson. Cleverely terrible. A loss would have been fair, I think Pearce made way too many bad choices.