European Championship U21 - England reach final on penalties

Eurosport - Sat, 27 Jun 10:03:00 2009

Stuart Pearce ended England's semi-final spot-kick hoodoo as his under-21s defeated Sweden 5-4 on penalties after extra-time - following a 3-3 draw - to reach the European Under-21 Championship final.

England on penalties, FOOTBALL - 0

Pearce lost at the last-four stage twice as a player and as a coach two years ago - but it looked like his youngsters would cruise to victory in Gothenburg after leading at half-time through Martin Cranie, Nedum Onuoha and Mattias Bjarsmyr's own goal.

The Swedes then staged a stunning revival at Gamla Ullevi and levelled through two goals from Marcus Berg and another from Ola Toivonen before Fraizer Campbell was sent off for England in extra-time.

Goalkeeper Joe Hart was booked to rule him out of the final but also scored one and saved one, sending England through.

It was James Milner who took the corner that saw England lead after just 53 seconds. Micah Richards jumped for the ball initially but it found its way to Cranie, who took a touch with his chest before volleying home with the help of Gabriel Agbonlahor jumping over the ball in front of Sweden goalkeeper Johan Dahlin.

While Bjarsmyr was being treated off the field, England grabbed the second. It was a Milner corner again, with Onuoha this time allowed to take a touch close to the six-yard area, turn Rasmus Bengtsson and fire into the bottom corner.

It got worse for Bjarsmyr before the break when he tried to clear Lee Cattermole's header from Theo Walcott's cross but sliced into his own net.

The Swedes eventually forced their way into the game and Berg gave Sweden a glimmer of hope with 22 minutes remaining when he turned in Guillermo Molins' cross.

Jack Rodwell came on for Mark Noble to shore up the midfield, but Toivonen found the net from a free-kick to give the Swedes real hope, then the equaliser came with nine minutes left. Molins crossed from the right again, Rasmus Elm flicked backwards at the far post, with Berg applying the final touch.

Campbell received his second booking of the match during extra-time when he challenged with Mikael Lustig, and he had stormed off the pitch even before the red card had been shown.

England will face Germany in Monday's final without Hart, Campbell and Agbonlahor who also received his second yellow card of the tournament.

"I said we needed to be prepared for penalties," Pearce said.

"And I said we would win one. The thing we knew about the Sweden team was that they would be dogged. Their philosophy is 'if you get one, we will get one'.

"Credit to Sweden - their players, fans and their management. They worked tirelessly. It is not easy to come back from 3-0 down.

"I have to look at my players - they were great, I am so pleased. Joe Hart made a great save and although we created a mountain of problems, hopefully we can now go on and win the trophy."

PA Sport

Comment 16 - 35 of 95

Sort comments by: Most recent

  1. Yeeha!
    Shame we'll be missing 3 players in the­ final though; why do cards carry over and deprive­ players of a final - crazy man!

    From cameron w, on Fri 26 Jun 8:07PM
  2. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    THAS AS JAST NAT NARMOL BEHOVIAR FAE ANGLUND.

    From Donney, on Fri 26 Jun 8:04PM
  3. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    DACTAR DACTAR A FEEL ILL. DACTAR: YE LACK AT.

    From Donney, on Fri 26 Jun 8:02PM
  4. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    AWWWWWWW WAT WAD YE KNOW THA ANGLASH BOSTURDS HAV WAN A­ PANALTAY S HAT OOT.

    From Donney, on Fri 26 Jun 8:01PM

  5. walcott was rubbish pearce gave him the chance and he­ through it back in his face

    From BARRY L, on Fri 26 Jun 7:59PM

  6. He was playing he was tacken off half way throught the­ 2nd half.

    From Paul., on Fri 26 Jun 7:53PM
  7. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    One of the great sporting memories of my childhood was­ the Scotland - England match,Quite frankly jock­ football is overated at best two teams who might and i­ say might just survive the PL.So as far as i am­ concerned F the jocks and yes that go for that @#$%­ Murray

    From martin b, on Fri 26 Jun 7:52PM

  8. #23 - what country are you from ?

    From jacqueline270, on Fri 26 Jun 7:49PM

  9. Sweden were the better team and a great fight back.­ There was only one team going to win.If Berg took his­ chance in extra time game over for England. Some of­ these Sweden players are premier league quality. But­ England got lucky and you need that bit of luck. But­ Sweden can be very proud great performance. I sort of­ feel sorry for Molins he worked his socks off and­ instrumental in their fight back. changed the game when­ he came on at half time. With players like Toivonen,­ Berg Elm who are probably the players of the­ tournament. Berg is a class act.Their future looks very­ bright. England have passed their toughest test. Well­ Done Italy vs England final.

    From Shameer, on Fri 26 Jun 7:48PM

  10. Why wasn;t Mark Noble playing? Is he injured/­ suspended??

    From Pat, on Fri 26 Jun 7:47PM

  11. Way to go nearest neighbours to the east

    From buymydrugs1, on Fri 26 Jun 7:41PM

  12. the plan was to get three nil up let 'em back in­ and then get in a little penalty shoot out­ practise...england go marching on--ENG ger Land!!!!!

    From banksey, on Fri 26 Jun 7:40PM

  13. eduardkramer , the germans stole a number of f1 titles­ with the cheating schumacker....

    From the proud brit, on Fri 26 Jun 6:24PM

  14. My experience is that in the 1960's 70's and­ 80's when going to watch football in pubs in­ England, whenever Ireland, Rep of Ireland, Wales or­ Scotland were playing everyone in the pub, Englishmen,­ supported them wholeheartedly. The Scotland thing­ started with Scotland not only not supporting England,­ but doing the opposite and screaming for them to get­ beaten. The time to retaliate. Remember when England­ was playing Argentina a few years ago, and the­ supermarkets in Scotland sold out of Argentinian wines?­ Scotland will not be at world cup yet again, Yippee

    From trouble, on Fri 26 Jun 5:03PM

  15. Stop moaning about England or Scotland, this time its­ England hats of to you all
    hope you win in 90 normal­ time.
    ALL THE BEST LADS
    From Gung7

    From Les, on Fri 26 Jun 4:54PM

  16. Edward Kramer, get up to date will you. As a German you­ are probably way behind when it comes to technology,­ but technology now exists where they are able to take­ the flight of the ball that you think did not cross the­ goal line, and then show it from along the goal line.­ It has been proven beyond any shadow of a doubt that­ the ball crossed the line, well over the line in fact.­ This has been done with several different pieces of­ software and all show the ball crossing the line. That­ has been the news for 10 years now. That old story is­ long dead and buried. When shown to some Germans they­ all said that they still want to believe it did not­ cross the line because it's better for them as bad­ losers to believe it did not.

    From trouble, on Fri 26 Jun 4:51PM

  17. c'mon england get into the final and win!!!

    i hope­ walcott scores.

    C'MON ENGLAND u21'S !!!!!!!!

    From David, on Fri 26 Jun 4:39PM
  18. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    England stole a World Cup, as it as been proven beyond­ reasonable doubt!!!!

    From eduardkramer, on Fri 26 Jun 4:39PM

  19. no problem with penalties just so long as Pearce isnt­ anywhere near one.

    From Dave H, on Fri 26 Jun 4:16PM

  20. gillysome, you go on about the england world cup­ victory in 66... but what about the scots eh! flower of­ scotland, that goes back to bannockburn! you moan about­ us still talking about englands victory 43 years ago­ but the scots are still banging on about something that­ happened 695 years ago! maybe you should give it a rest­ with the anti english songs or stop the whinging about­ our world cup victory eh!

    From steven, on Fri 26 Jun 4:11PM
Sort comments by: Most recent

Not already a Yahoo! user ? to get a free Yahoo! Account