WhateverLee Carsleygoes on to achieve in his managerial career, this will be very hard to beat. England’s Under-21s had been pegged back by Germany after racing into a 2-0 lead after goals for Harvey Elliott and Omari Hutchinson and those of a negative disposition could be forgiven for thinking back to the 1970 World Cup when Sir Alf Ramsey’s reigning champions were eliminated after extra time in the same scenario.
But with Thomas Tuchel watching on from the stands after dashing across the Atlantic to be here, Carsley – who was not even born back then – clearly had no such thoughts. Instead, he boldly gambled by taking off Elliott and the captain, James McAtee, and was rewarded by the substitute Jonathan Rowe scoring with almost his first touch. It means England have followed in the footsteps of Dave Sexton’s sides more than 40 years ago by winning successive European titles and their fourth in total. On this evidence, the future looks very bright indeed.
Carsley could barely contain his emotions as he pumped his fist in delight at the final whistle as England’s players celebrated wildly, with some of their family members in the stands bursting into tears. It has been a whirlwind six months for the former Everton midfielder, who was criticised for saying during his spellas interim England managerthat he was hoping to return to the Under-21s.
England (4-2-3-1): Beadle; Livramento, Quansah, Cresswell, Hinshelwood; Anderson (Egan-Riley 99), Scott (Morton 44); Elliott (Rowe 90), McAtee (Nwaneri 90), Hutchinson (Iling-Junior 98); Stansfield (Norton-Cuffy 62)Subs: Edwards, Fellows, Gray, Hackney, Sharman-Lowe, Simkin
Goals:Elliott 5, Hutchinson 24, Rowe 92Germany (4-3-3):Atubolu; Collins, Arrey-Mbi, Oermann (Wanner 105), Brown (Ullrich 86); Nebel, Martel (Tresoldi 98), Reitz; Weiper (Röhl 80), Woltemade, Gruda (Knauff 73)Subs: Baum, Ernst, Jander, Noll, Rosenfelder, Siebert, Thielmann
Goals:Weiper 45+1, Nebel 61
Yet with several players missing due to the Club World Cup and senior call-ups, Carsley has once again showed how effective he is coaching England’s next crop of promising talent after arriving in Slovakia with an inexperienced squad that was not among the favourites to triumph. With Nottingham Forest’s Elliot Anderson excelling in midfield, it is a testament to their team spirit that heads never dropped even after conceding the equaliser.
Carsley had been calmness personified before kick-off as he cracked jokes with his assistant Ashley Cole and he had the luxury of being able to name an unchanged side from the semi-final victoryagainst the Netherlands. Such was the interest in this game Tuchel had flown more than 5,000 miles from the Club World Cup in the US to be in attendance, while the Germany manager, Julian Nagelsmann, cut short his holiday in Mallorca.
Both could not have failed to have been impressed with the way England started as Elliott, who was later presented with the player of the tournament award for his five goals butfaces an uncertain future with Liverpool, gave them an early lead after Nnamdi Collins made a hash of a clearance.
Charlie Cresswell – who is the other remaining member of the winning squad from 2023 – was inches away from doubling the lead when McAtee fired across the face of goal. Germany were caught out again on the break soon after and, having been set up by McAtee, Hutchinson finished with aplomb and he celebrated with an acrobatic flip. The usually understated Carsley could barely contain his delight on the touchline.
With Germany’s main threat Nick Woltemade having to drop increasingly deeper, the manager, Antonio Di Salvo, seemed to have no answer. But the loss of the limping Alex Scott, replaced by Liverpool’s Tyler Morton just before half-time, was a blow and that was compounded when Nelson Weiper pulled one back by heading home Paul Nebel’s cross in first-half injury time.
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McAtee was unlucky to see his effort drift just wide after a magnificent dummy left his marker for dead at the start of the second half. But Germany looked so much more threatening when they made it into the final third and the England goalkeeper James Beadle did well not to parry Nebel’s cross into the path of the waiting Woltemade, who is set to join Bayern Munich after this tournament.
There was to be no such reprieve when Nebel – who qualifies to play for the Republic of Ireland through his grandmother – saw his curling shot deflect off Jay Stansfield and loop over Beadle’s despairing dive to equalise.
Carsley immediately sacrificed Stansfield for Brooke Norton-Cuffy, with Elliott brought into a more central role. Suddenly the game was on a knife edge as Norton-Cuffy could only direct his shot straight at Noah Atubolu after being set up by Hutchinson. There were hearts in mouths on the England bench when Germany struck the crossbar in injury time but they made it to extra time.
Carsley rolled the dice by taking off the exhausted McAtee and Elliott and it immediately paid dividends as Rowe’s deft header from Morton’s cross restored England’s lead. “We have to dig in,” said Carsley as he gathered his players together in a huddle at the change of ends. “This is our time now.” Germany hit the bar again in injury time but Carsley and England would not be denied their place in the history books.