ENGLAND UNDER 21S CRASH OUT
ENGLAND leave with something. Regret. If they had played like this earlier in the group, the under 21s would be playing in the European Championship summer knockouts.
But how cruel was the exit. Gut-wrenching. They bossed this game and were magnificent all evening. This was an England performance to finally instil pride among the players and their manager.
They went out on goals scored and as it began to sink in, tempers flared at the final whistle. Liverpool’s Curtis Jones lost his head, shaking off one of his own coaches as he fought with jubilant opponents before being shown a second yellow card.
His team had packed a punch in terms of their football. Everything that has been missing over the past week seemed to click into place.
on probably his final bow as manager, Aidy Boothroyd should have been taking great pleasure in his team coming back from the brink. Two minutes into stoppage time they were through — the unlikeliest of resurrections.
Yet when Croatia full back Domagoj Bradaric wound up from 25 yards and fired the ball into the top left corner of Aaron Ramsdale’s net — England bodies strewn across the grass — your mind went back to Switzerland last Thursday. The opening day nightmare.
Switzerland went on to concede six in their next two games having managed a clean sheet against England. That is where this campaign was lost, not to the boot of Bradaric.
‘I haven’t got the words for it,’ said an emotional Ramsdale. ‘Three minutes away from getting out of a group we should’ve got out of anyway. It’s a learning curve but for us it’s as much about winning as it is learning. It’s heartbreaking.’
Jones and Eberechi Eze were England’s goalscorers and the team’s best players. Both made their first starts of the group. There are questions for Boothroyd who, while winning the Toulon tournament in 2018 and reaching the semi-final of this competition a year earlier, has now presided over two miserable group- stage exits despite talent in abundance.
The FA debrief is due in the next fortnight.
‘We got knocked out against Switzerland,’ said Boothroyd. ‘It hurts. We needed a big performance against Switzerland. We didn’t do anything we talked about doing.
‘Is it winning or development? It’s a little bit foggy at the minute. We’re not sure what it is. I know what it is, we’re part of a pathway to produce players for Gareth.’
Portugal were beating Switzerland comfortably and England, already a goal up after Eze’s 12th- minute penalty, only required one more. The second goal owed much to the running of substitute Rhian Brewster.
He flashed a cross into the box which Dwight McNeil controlled, unselfishly finding Jones who buried the ball low into the far corner on 74 minutes.
Boothroyd roared, Jones roared. Sadly, not for long.
‘It’s all about getting us to the seniors and we need to be reliable and see games out much better than that,’ said Ramsdale. ‘It’s cost us again.’