Czech Republic - U21 Euro Championship

This starts on Wednesday, coverage kindly provided by BT Sport so i'll be watching a majority of the games (and doing some stuff for www.outsideoftheboot.com on it as well). It's a very very strong tournament this year and i'm rather excited about it (gotta get my fix during close season).



I think England will disappoint, I reckon we'll either scrape second (after Portugal) or crash out in the group stage. I haven't looked at odds but Germany have to be favourites to win it.



There's an abudance of talent on show, including players already playing at a ridiculous level (Ter Stegen who just played in a Champions League final will look out of place here I feel, and some of England players who represent top English clubs in the Prem already, William Carvalho who's always being linked to £30m moves to Chelsea + Arsenal) so I won't include them in my players to watch, instead I feel the slightly lesser known players to watch include the following:



Kadlec - Striker for Czech Republic. A goal every other game for the Czech U21 side, hasn't been fantastic in his 11 appearances for the senior Czech team but has had a fantastic season on loan back for Sparta Prague. He's a very pacy striker with great technique. Would imagine he'll score a few goals here.

Fischer - Winger for Denmark. At the risk of sounding like Mr Savile, i've been watching him play for a few years now, following his career closely as he's one of my favourite young players to watch. He's had an awful season (due to injuries). Hopefully he's back to full fitness and it won't reappear over the course of the tournament. A very tricky winger (plays for Ajax) with a fantastic technique who likes to get in the box and finish (and he can finish) makes him a joy to watch.

Poulsen - Striker for Denmark. 20 year old striker currently playing for RB Leipzig in the German second division. Power is the best word to describe him. Incredibly strong and a beast in the air (he's 6ft 4" aged just 20...). He's averaged just under a goal every other game this season, and got his first senior international goal against a strong Serbian team. Will be sure to dominate some of the defences on show.

Hojbjerg - Centre Mid for Denmark. Not sure if anyone on here has read the book Pep Confidential (if not, do it, a fantastic read), but you only need to hear how highly Guardiola raves about him to realise that this kid could end up something very special. He's been on the fringes of the Bayern team for a few seasons now, making appearances here and there. He went on loan to Augsberg this season and helped them qualify for the Europa league with 2 goals and 3 assists in 16 games. He tracks back and is great defensively, whilst also being able to distribute the ball almost flawlessly. He's fantastic in the air as well. Reminds me of Schweinsteiger. Quality.

Ginter - Defender for Germany. I seem to recall we were linked with him a few seasons ago as it was rumoured (not sure if it was ever true or not) that Udinese owned him. He ended up signing for Dortmund where he hasn't really shown too much progress, so i'm hoping he has a good tournament!

Meyer - Centre Mid for Germany. A few years ago he looked the real deal, and it was imagined he'd be a regular in the German national team by now. For various reasons (i'm sure the constant upheaval of managers at Schalke hasn't helped) this hasn't happened. Fantastic dribbler (similar to Messi style) with great technique. Will rip open some defences i'm sure.

Bardi - Goalkeeper for Italy. Italy have a mad amount of quality young goalkeepers at present, I can think of about 3 or 4 Italian keepers who are of age for this tournament that all have bright futures ahead of them (Leali - who also made the team, Perin, Scuffet alongside Bardi). I presume Bardi will be the number 1 of choice though as Leali didn't have the greatest of seasons. Not a lot I can really say about Bardi, he's everything you expect from a quality young goalkeeper.

Rugani - Defender for Italy. The future of the Italian defence. If you've ever played a Football Manager game, i'm sure you'll know all about him. I haven't been able to watch him (he's been on loan to Empoli from Juventus for the past few seasons) as much as I would've liked this season (think i've caught 2-3 games this season) he's looked class every-time i've seen him. He's calm and composed on the ball, with great distribution. When defending he's equally as calm, makes fantastic decisions and has a great tackle about him. On top of this he has none of the recklessness that you often find with young centre-backs, he played every single minute of Empolis Serie A campaign without getting a single card, quite remarkable for a 20 year old. Can't wait to see how he deals with Kane, Ings, Berahino etc. Will also be interesting to see if he is in Juventus squad for next season, Barzalgi is now 34 and didn't feature a whole lot this season, can see him being moved on and Rugani being the back-up centre-back.

Berardi - Striker for Italy. The ideal modern striker, pacey, great technique, selfless, good vision, not out-muscled too easily. He terrifies defences, he ended up Serie As 6th top goalscorer this season with 15 (including a hat-trick against AC Milan) goals for Sassuolo (on loan from Juve). Temperament is a problem though, with quite a few cards to his name over the past few seasons. Doubt he'll be at Juventus next season, so be interesting to see where he ends up, probably go to Sassuolo again I reckon.

Ruben Neves - Centre Mid for Portugal. The youngest player at the tournament, turning 18 just 3 months ago. A box to box midfielder with fantastic vision and great technique, very very highly rated by the Portugese set-up. Despite being so young he made 11 starts for Porto in the league and 3 starts in the Champions League. Looks like a very bright future ahead of him.

Bernado Silva - Winger/CAM for Portugal. Wasn't sure whether to include him or not, as I thought he might be too "big" for this. Moved from Benfica to Monaco (where he was already on loan) in January for around €16m, he's had a fantastic season where he settled seamlessly. An absolute joy to watch when he's on the ball, incredibly tricky, pacey with a decent finish to boot (he grabbed 9 goals for Monaco from the right wing position). A small chap (5ft 8!), he reminds me of a young Deco when on the ball.



Yes, I have too much time on my hands.

 

Another event snaffled by BT sport. Dang.

Reids are any of these players possible targets for us? Not the bayern and juventus lads of course. Maybe they'd all be 15 million plus due to potential anyway.

 

Great analysis as usual reids. Well I guess you know who I'd like to point out is missing! But that's been done.

However, I can't help saying that I think his footballing development would have been better served by pitting his wits against some of those you have identified above rather than participating in some kind of low key 'get to know you' week instead.

 

None of the ones I posted would be in anyway within our price range. I imagine there'd be some value in some of the Czech/Swedes/Serbs though. I don't watch any of their domestic leagues (I stopped watching the Swedish league when my favourite player in that league went to the MLS) so not sure on how good they are. Will certainly be keeping my eyes open though.

 

Indeed, the social media reaction from the Czech Republic also suggested that. Also if this getting to know you week was so important, why is Battochio in the Italy team? Think we're just protecting someone who the club feel is vital to our upcoming campaign instead.

 

i gamble a lot on czech u21 league, always lots of goals

 

Haha same. Boleslav <3

 

Great preview!

 

the tallinns are good for goals. fc infonet won 36-0 the other night!

 

Yeah saw that. Estonia is relatively easy to predict but the bookies reflect that in the prices so it's not as easy compared to a few years ago.

 

true, with some games like that id wait towards the last 30 minutes when odds are more fair. they scored 24 in the second half :]]

 

Yeah, that happens quite a lot in Eastern Europe, there was a team in Lithuania a few seasons ago who were quite dodgy. Used to score in the last 10 minutes of the match a lot more frequently than you'd count as normal...Won a fair bit off them

 

Whoops. Did the dislike thing again. Apologies.

 

Backing Denmark in the first game. 13/8 with Betfair.

 

A bloody good write up by the way and I hope you can find the time to do more as the tournament progresses. Hoping to catch at least a game a day.

Liked the sound of berardi so took him as top scorer for 10/1. May lack service though, and maybe games if Italy dont qualify.

As I say, hope you can keep up the good work.

 

Cheers for the write up

 

Vydra would have scored a hattrick by now.

 

That Czech RB is tasty. Can't say i'd heard of him before but he's class. Fischers been crap so far. Very disappointed, looks so uninterested.

 

Tough to tell with this crap river. Don't know how you're watching but feel free to PM a code to the safe!

 

Ah, i've got BT Sport so i'm watching via that

Scrappy win for Denmark, poor first half, absolute quality in the second. Wins me my bet as well so happy about that. Going for Germany -1 next up!

 

Day 1:​

Czech Republic vs Denmark:

Denmark went into this as slight favourites (13/8 vs 15/8) and it was easy to see why looking at the lineups, Chelsea CB Tomas Kalas and their star striker (since Super Matty wasn't allowed to go) Kadlec were both suspended (for red cards acquired 2 years ago!). Denmark had a strong line-up with Hojberg, Poulsen and Fischer all starting (I mentioned them in my original post). Czech Republic looked dangerous with a few good chances early on.

Czechs made the breakthrough with a stunning goal after 35 minutes (available here: http://www.gfycat.com/HappyBoilingClownanemonefish) from my MOTM Kaderabek, he was a constant menace to the Danish left, bombing forward from the RB position. Solid defensively as well, straight away looked him up after the match...he joined Hoffenheim today :rant:

Denmark came out from HT and went for it, they improved so so much from the first half where they were, quite frankly, shocking. They were keeping possession well, moving it around with purpose, which was then creating chances. They got their reward after 56 minutes with a great header from their absolute of a beast of a CB (available here: http://www.gfycat.com/EmptyTinyIrishwaterspaniel)

This was then the turning point of the match, the Danes could smell blood and took off Viktor Fischer and replaced him with Pione Sisto. I've heard really really good things about Sisto, but have never seen him play. Fischer was shocking, so not much of a surprise he got substituted. His touch was awful, he just generally looked uninterested and didn't want the ball (moving away from the ball closer to the CBs etc). Sisto however was a revelation, chasing down every ball where Fischer was just standing watching. Running at the defence. Taking shots (even if they did mostly go over the bar), so many shots in fact that he had more than the entire Danish team combined, even though he was only on the pitch for 33 minutes! So it was always on the cards that he bagged the winner for the Danes with a toe poke that caught the Czech keeper by surprise (available here: http://gfycat.com/WellwornTimelyAustraliankelpie)

More players to watch:

Pione Sisto (Winger for Denmark, based off both his and Fischers performance, he has to start the next game against the Germans!)
Pavel Kaderabek (Right Back for Czech Republic)


Germany vs Serbia

Germany went into this as heavy favourites (4/7 for the win) and again the line-ups showed why. Ter Stegen fresh from winning the Champions League started in goal for Germany, with a very attacking lineup named. Despite this it was Serbia who took a shock lead, with a stunning goal from Djuricic, which included a great nutmeg (you'd expect more from a CB who has almost 70 appearances for Wolfsburg...) and a nifty finish that fooled Ter Stegen via a little shift of the body that made him look like he was going to go for the far corner (goal available here: http://gfycat.com/SpeedyComfortableCony).

Germany looked shocked and Djuricic was pulling all of the strings for Serbia, with pretty much every attack starting from him. A fascinating battle emerged between Can (Liverpool) and Djuricic (Benfica), with little difference between them (i'd say that Djuricic got the better of the first half, whereas Can dominated him in the second half). It was Can that got the equaliser after 17 minutes (goal here: http://gfycat.com/LimitedPlasticGossamerwingedbutterfly) with a nice little dummy, followed by a sublime finish.

Serbia then tested Ter Stegen with an absolute rocket of a shot (available here: http://www.gfycat.com/QuerulousIdealisticItaliangreyhound), with a great save after it. Serbias game-plan was obvious, soak up the pressure and hope to break on the counter, which is exactly how they knocked out Spain to reach this stage of the Euros. This meant the game was pretty open and both teams looked like they could steal it.

The German left back then picked up a second yellow card for a dive (good decision from the ref) which put Germany under the hammer. This changed somewhat when the bought on Bittencourt who bought a renewed sense of passion to the German game and they then looked more likely to pinch the winner (with this great run from Bittencourt at the death almost ending in a goal: http://streamable.com/wyv9 ). In the end I think a draw was fair, Serbia played their game well and the Denmark vs Germany game on Saturday now looks very vital from a German point of view.

More players to watch:

Bittencourt - Winger for Germany - Looked dangerous when he was bought on for Max Meyer (who I talked about in my original post). Meyer was all about the tricks and trying to beat the opponent up close, Bittencourt wanted to run onto the ball which meant Serbias plan of absorbing pressure was really put to the test. Hoping he'll make a few starts over the course of the tournament

Djuricic - Attacking midfielder for Serbia - With a majority of Serbias U21 team either with the senior team or at the U20 World Cup (where they're into the final) they have quite a weakened side. This man will be their saviour if they're to progress though, was sharp on the ball, made good decisions and was a hassle to the normally solid German defensive third. I think the Czechs will struggle against him, and the Danes probably will as well.





Sadly I won't be able to watch tomorrow or Saturdays matches as i'm busy, but will post up the videos like I have done above when I can!

 

Nice one, good summaries

 

England U21 lose the first group match 1-0 to Portugal U21

 

The much vaunted pampered young guns fail again on the big stage......

 

No writeups cos sadly I couldn't watch the matches today (same with Saturdays :rant

England - 0 Portugal - 1

Goal available here: http://streamable.com/xyxp


Italy - 1 Sweden - 2

Red card Sweden after 25 mins: http://streamable.com/d8xc
Subsequent Berardi penalty to make it 1-0 Italy: http://streamable.com/94sr
Gudetti makes it 1-1: http://streamable.com/k4as
Sweden grab the winner from the spot: http://streamable.com/u83j

 

I watched both.

England were abysmal. Just hoofing it up to Kane to no avail. Surprised though, as a midfield of Ward-Prowse, Chalobah and Carroll at this level is pretty good. Portugal's number 6 and 10 were great.

Italy again, so so poor. Frustrating to watch, could barely string two passes together, loads of long shots and selfish play. Swedes defended fantastically and totally deserved the win. I'm not sure if the Italian LB was in fact a RB out of position but he kept cutting inside to cross on his right... but always over shot it into the keeper's arms or out for a GK.

 

Portugal were just so much better on the ball than England. I'm not sure if that's just down to the skill levels or whether England were just off the boil.

Felt they worked hard and had their chances, combination of poor finishing and great goalkeeping cost them.

Chalobah was pretty awful, sad to see his lack of progression. Referee made some terrible decisions as well.

All in all, despite the result, I enjoyed it more than any national team game I've watched in years.

 

Just checked, you're right, he's normally a RB.

 

Battochio was disappointing.

 

Alan Brazil this morning couldn't believe how the much better English premier league players lost to a tin pot league like Portugal LOL, LOL and LOL

 

He pulled this out the bag against England last night...

http://streamable.com/fakw

 

Hold on, I thought it was the Senior team that was meant to be shyte and the U21s being the bright sparks of the future??

 

That's the under 20's... crap Boothroyd is their manager and they were not great in the Toulon tournament. Perhaps the Under 18's then?

 

Lack of a centre back that's even vaguely comfortable on the ball led to lots of aimless punts forward. When we actually had the ball on the ground, we looked alright. We give up possession so often going long when a decent ball playing CB would help us keep control.