Monday 22 June 2015 10:25, UK
A late goal by substitute Jesse Lingard gave England three points against Sweden and kept their European Under-21 Championship hopes alive in the Czech Republic. Adam Bate was in Olomouc for Sky Sports to see Gareth Southgate’s patient approach vindicated with just minutes to go…
Finally. England have won their first game at a European Under-21 Championship since 2009 and their first at any major tournament for teams at Under-20 level or upwards since the senior side beat Ukraine at Euro 2012.
Victory came at the 12th attempt thanks to Jesse Lingard’s 86th minute winner against Sweden but only after a tense affair in Olomouc.
“We’re going to score goals,” England coach Gareth Southgate had confidently predicted from the comfort of St George’s Park in the pre-tournament build-up. He could have been forgiven for wondering when. It took almost three hours of action in the Czech Republic for his side to get off the mark. Patience was tested to its limits but England are now just a win away from the semi-finals.
“It would have been easy for that to crumble,” admitted Southgate afterwards. “That belief that we’ve all talked about.” The coach had urged his players to stay relaxed and try to enjoy this experience but the passing game that Southgate favours – and which served England so well throughout qualifying – can be trying in tournament play.
“We had to keep being patient and not just crash it forwards,” Southgate explained, but the penetration from midfield was lacking and the assumption that merely shifting the ball around would be enough to pull Sweden apart seemed misguided.
“Our tempo at times needed to be a bit quicker,” he added. “Maybe that was the burden of needing the result showing on young players.”
Of course, part of the purpose of these competitions is to prepare the nation’s finest young talents for the senior stresses that are to come. An opening defeat to Portugal had set the scene and while the crowd of 11,257 was far from daunting, the knowledge of expectation, column inches and even the Twitter abuse awaiting them might have added to the strain on young shoulders.
“I think we’re blessed with youth development teams that there isn’t that spotlight and pressure,” Southgate had said earlier this month. “I think that’s going to be a big challenge for us this summer in that there is going to be a bit more spotlight. Are we going to continue to play with the freedom that we’ve shown because that’s what we’ve got to do.” Well, this was the test.
In some instances that sense of fun was evident, with Alex Pritchard – drafted in after a fine cameo against Portugal – showing confidence and poise on the left to fashion chances for both himself and Will Hughes. So when an injury meant that the Tottenham man was to be replaced by Lingard early in the second half, it was far from obvious that the switch would prove a blessing.
Southgate had insisted both before and after that the quality would tell in the end – “we said to the players that it might be 60 or 70 minutes” – and the players did get their reward with four minutes remaining. Nathan Redmond’s snap shot had earned a corner and the goalkeeper could only punch Luke Garbutt’s corner into Lingard’s path. There was plenty to do but the substitute’s strike was clean.
Our tempo at times needed to be a bit quicker. Maybe that was the burden of needing the result showing on young players.
After all their injury problems and on-field setbacks, England now go into Wednesday’s final group game against Italy in good spirits with Southgate finally able to talk about momentum as a positive. But he won’t be letting his players get carried away. “Tournaments at this stage become about really fine margins. It’s a small sample size of games and lots of random things can happen in football.”
England have come out on the wrong side of those margins for too long, but at least their Under-21 coach now has something to cling to when insisting to his players that they are on the right path. The long wait for a tournament win is over. The second could need to come within the week if England are to progress to the semi-finals on Wednesday evening.
Player Ratings
England: Butland (6); Jenkinson (7), Moore (5), Gibson (6), Garbutt (5); Hughes (5), Chalobah (6), Carroll (5); Pritchard (7), Kane (6), Redmond (6).
Subs: Ings (7), Lingard (7), Loftus-Cheek (6).
