European Championship U21 - Germany humble England in final

Eurosport - Tue, 30 Jun 10:46:00 2009

English hopes of winning a first major trophy for 25 years were cruelly dashed as they were well beaten 4-0 by Germany in the European U21 Championship final in Malmo.

FOOTBALL 2009 European U21 Championships England look on as Germany celebrate winning final - 0

Trailing 1-0 at half-time to a Gonzalo Castro goal, England fell two behind soon after the break via a Mesut Ozil free-kick. As England pushed forward, striker Sandro Wagner scored twice in the closing stages to seal the trophy for the Germans in emphatic style.

Stuart Pearce's side were without strike duo Gabriel Agbonlahor and Fraizer Campbell as well as goalkeeper Joe Hart - the hero of the semi-final penalty shootout win - through suspension and they came up against a German team that had steadily improved throughout the tournament, peaking in the final where they stopped England lifting the trophy they last won in 1984.

Midway through the first half, with the game evenly matched, Germany struck with a well-crafted goal as playmaker Ozil slipped a weighted through ball into the path of Castro, the same player who scored against England in the group stage. Castro timed his run well to knock a finish over goalkeeper Scott Loach, who was also in goal when the Bayer Leverkusen midfielder struck in the 1-1 draw in Halmstad.

Just two minutes into the second half, following a good chance for England, Germany found themselves 2-0 up when the swerve on Ozil's free-kick from all of 40 yards out deceived Loach and the Watford keeper could not get a strong enough hand on the ball to make up for his misjudgement and stop it creeping into the net.

That goal proved to be decisive, as it forced England to commit more men forward and leave gaps at the back. Wagner, who spent last season at German second tier side Duisburg on loan from Bayern Munich, had struggled to get involved for much of the game, and missed a glorious chance with 15 minutes remaining when Ozil drove forward and squared a ball across goal, only for the big striker to slide in and miss from six yards.

The tall forward more than made amends three minutes later, however, when Ozil found him in space on the left, and he had time to take a touch before finishing coolly through the legs of Loach.

Wagner then turned England's defeat from comprehensive to humiliating on 84 minutes when he was once more fed by Ozil, this time curling a wonderful right-footed shot past the goalkeeper at full stretch to see Germany double their goal tally for the whole tournament.

Although they struggled to create chances despite their extra possession, England did have several opportunities to get on the scoresheet after going two down.

Wigan midfielder Lee Cattermole, not known for his goalscoring prowess, fired in a long-range effort that clipped the top of the bar, and later had a glancing header blocked on the line by Andreas Beck.

Middlesbrough winger Adam Johnson was also cruelly denied by Beck when he steered James Milner's ball from the byline goalwards with a backheel, only for the Germany full-back to stop it creeping in.

With both Agbonlahor and Campbell unavailable, England were lacking an out-and-out striker to go up against the well-drilled German defence, who only conceded one goal in the whole tournament.

Theo Walcott was deployed as the lone front man by manager Stuart Pearce, but the Arsenal player found himself shackled by Germany's Mats Hummels, who did an exemplary job sat in front of the back four and cast serious doubt over Walcott's ambitions to become a central striker.

Walcott had an early chance as England started the brighter of the two sides, but was forced to strike from an acute angle by full-back Sebastian Boenisch and fired his effort wide.

Just before that chance, in the very first minute, Johnson won a free-kick on the left wing, but James Milner's delivery flew over Martin Cranie at the far post.

With the marked lack of height in the England attack, Germany's defenders were able to control any long balls in the air from England, and the midfield stifled the creativity of Milner and Mark Noble.

Tony Mabert / Eurosport

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  1. Hey Congratulations from Germany to the U21 English­ Team! The second place is also really good! So chin up­ and dont be sad!

    From munich_girl81, on Tue 30 Jun 11:03AM

  2. no one believes england can win in crucial games, or­ maybe put better..everyone believes there is more of a­ chance we can loose. and that's everyone from our­ players to manager and staff and crowd,press,and most­ supporters of England and supporters of every other­ team in the world and the world press...well everyone­ who likes football. It's our history since 66 and­ that is now what we are used to. We want to win with a­ passion but it's much harder to when there is a­ huge expectancy tinged with doubt. All the pundits­ before the game...if we win blah blah since 84 if if.­ Noble in pre match interview ..if we win blah blah! too­ many ifs and not enough we will. @#$%@rs

    From darren c, on Tue 30 Jun 10:59AM

  3. i see there are still some anti-english idiots on here­ this morning, how very sad that is,

    From LAMBRETTA, on Tue 30 Jun 10:48AM

  4. STOP going back in time, 1984, 1966....... that's­ HISTORY! Forget that, it's all about the NOW and­ Next year's WC. Yes, i think England had a good­ U-21 tournament and they did well. Without the lads up­ front, there was only going to be one winner and a­ deserved winner they were, well done Germany.

    Besides,­ everytime the U-21 play, they never get any attention.­ It was only because they reached the final of this­ tournament that there was a mention of them. Tell me,­ how many ENGLAND fans were there supporting them? Yeah,­ not a lot. In fact most of the england fans there were­ the players families.

    The TRUTH is, we do not have the­ b@lls to win a modern tournament. Look at the scare the­ U-21s had against Sweden, they LOST a 3-0 lead and­ nearly lost the Semi-finals.

    I must say however, the­ U-21 did show the "senior" team how to pass­ the ball on a pitch and a few lessons can be learnt­ from them. Well done lads, now over to the senior­ team.

    PS: How on earth did the US beat SPAIN in the­ confed? :-)

    From Mr.L, on Tue 30 Jun 10:34AM

  5. don´t be sad
    our U17 girls won the final with­ 7(seven!!!!!!!!!) - 0 against spain
    so 0 -4 is not so­ bad!
    looking forward to an outstanding german team­ .......

    From billy, on Tue 30 Jun 10:07AM

  6. Well put mik363, but we have gave a lot to some major­ compititons over the years and played our part, just­ never had that final killer instinct, or hate to say it­ luck at times, but it will all click in 1 tournamnet­ very soon i believe.

    From terri-ann, on Tue 30 Jun 9:59AM

  7. agreed w/ Martin: It was a good tournament and Germany­ deserved 1st place. Would have been nice if England had­ Campbell, Agbonlahor and Hart to make it more­ competitive...

    From peri, on Tue 30 Jun 9:59AM

  8. More like humbled the england press. I think England is­ cursed in most sports on the international level cause­ of lack of Humilty from the english generally but­ especially by the english press

    From Charles, on Tue 30 Jun 9:58AM

  9. I agree with Martin _K lets have less of the racism in­ all sport, but you have to feel sympathy for the narrow­ minded english footy fan, coz besides 66 we've not­ won anything else since the war and that was with our­ other pet hate USA's help. So roll on 2010 perhaps­ the english will have something else to celebrate.

    From mik363, on Tue 30 Jun 9:48AM

  10. The old song of "Two World Wars and one World­ Cup", sung by the English over the years needs to­ be rewritten: "How did we win­ ......???"

    Hansel.

    From davidf3497, on Tue 30 Jun 9:43AM

  11. Hey tommyfcb2006, get your facts right before you post­ pal, the england under 21's won this tournamnet in­ 1984, so this was our last trophy not 1966!!!!

    From terri-ann, on Tue 30 Jun 9:43AM
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    """""""W e a­ lthyFinder C­ om""""""" where many­ sexy singles- who like dating and-- chatting there.­ I'm an open- minded girl with strong s---exual­ a--ttraction I-- am Waiting 4 u

    From hotsummer00782, on Tue 30 Jun 9:36AM

  13. Had a look at the comments, very constructive.
    I for­ one think that Capello and indeed Stew P and co are­ doing a good job.
    The management Team seem to have a­ serious game plan and I think the English public will­ give them a chance.
    If Capello fails we will be no­ worst off than having a yesman at the Helm picked by­ the no nothings at the F.A.
    For to long now we have put­ up with poor forward thinking! lets hope we will soon­ be proud of our national team.

    From banfield850, on Tue 30 Jun 9:20AM

  14. Ok, i posted on here yesterday saying that England will­ bottle it with nerves, walcott will play up front by­ himself and we will hoof balls up to him, and loads of­ people gave me the thumbs down, so where are you all­ now, and was i correct?!?

    From terri-ann, on Tue 30 Jun 9:10AM

  15. jamesmccannmccann. I hope to God that you are not a­ Scot! As a Scot I am deeply embarrassed with your­ cringeworthy and pathetic attempts to use Old Scots.­ What you are producing is nothing less than­ gobbledegook of the worst kind. Please pack it in and­ go and read The Broons you numpty. You'll get a­ better idea of the language there.

    From ayozares, on Tue 30 Jun 8:46AM

  16. When England lose they always mention that they will­ learn from it and improve. I have heard this in cricket­ and tennis countless times! Fu***ng hell we should be­ masters by now with that we should have learnt from­ past defeats!!!

    From tommy, on Tue 30 Jun 8:42AM

  17. I´m german and of course a fan of germany. Yesterday we­ were the better side, but england made the second place­ and played a goodtournament. It´s not so bad i think?!­ What i don´t understand is to read about war here???­ What has football basicly to do with war? Second world­ war is over since 1945. I wasn´t born then and i think­ the most people here were not. It's time to look­ forward. And i´m looking forward to south africa 2010.­ Say no to racism...

    From martin_kaufmann83, on Tue 30 Jun 8:41AM

  18. thats what you all deserve for your disrespect about­ the best football nation in history, you will never­ beat us, our umcoming talent is endless, we will

    From Sejad, on Tue 30 Jun 8:39AM

  19. the game was entertaining and of course there has to be­ a winner at all games. England took part, showed­ commitment, and did not lack in any manner. Yes there­ defence did not cope too well, but let us not forget­ the team is "work in progress", and there are­ a lot of positives to take out of the match. Let us­ show a sincere dose of patriotism and redifine our­ thinking, we know we need to get better and we will. It­ should be clear to some that we had youngsters in the­ U21s that play in the premier league which is by the­ way the best league in the world and it is a matter of­ time before we show our talent and ability to learn

    From james, on Tue 30 Jun 8:37AM

  20. Actually foeyp, the English and Germans have much in­ common in terms of race. The Celts also lived in a­ region covered by present-day countries like Germany,­ France and Spain. The Anglo-Saxons were Germanic tribes­ from what is now Northern Germany. Which is why much of­ our language has roots in old German.

    Besides foeyp,­ just because of sports results, you cannot talk about a­ race being superior to another. Unless you have read­ "Mein Kampf" too much!

    I don't know what­ a football match has to do with races, foeyp sounds a­ little strange.

    From Anthony B, on Tue 30 Jun 8:37AM
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