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Tottenham’s highly-rated striker, Harry Kane, will be hoping to get himself a goal or two at least against the Italians tonight. The Spurs forward has struggled to make much of an impact in-front of goal thus far but has not had much service either, in fairness.
It’ll be a tense atmosphere tonight, with expectations high for both sides to win. They started the competition slowly, and have been punished for exactly that.
“Regardless of which players take to the field tonight, we are a tight-knit group and we always do our best to honour our shirt. We have to face England with one single goal – victory.”
Cataldi stated that himself and his team-mates are only focused on their upcoming game, as what happens elsewhere is out of their control. As long as they prevail, even if they are knocked out, they’d go home with pride.
After a loss and a draw against Sweden and the Czech Republic respectively, they need results to go in their favour tonight. Luigi di Biagio’s Azzurrini will be heading out of the tournament unless theymanage to beat England and Portugal beat Sweden in the other group game.
Enough about England, at least for now. Italian midfielder Danilo Cataldi has admitted that his side’s hopes of qualifying for the last four are “hanging by a thread”.
ITALY U21‘s: Bardi; Biraghi, Rugani, Bianchetti, Zappacosta; Viviani, Benassi, Cataldi; Belotti, Bernardeschi and Berardi.
ENGLAND U21‘s: Butland; Jenkinson, Stones, Gibson, Garbutt; Chalobah, Hughes, Ward-Prowse; Lingard, Redmond and Kane.
Predicted line-ups, are as follows..
“Now we are in a good position to go far in the tournament. If we get the win in the next game[tonight], we can do well.”
On the national team, where he impressed in a short cameo appearance against the Swedes:
Loftus-Cheek stated: “I listened to what the manager said and I wasn’t at the level – I need to do better if I want to play for Chelsea. For me, that is a reminder I have to work hard to get in the team.”
He maintained the belief that he needs to get better if he is to get into the first-team on a regular basis and was rewarded with an U21 call-up, his first, after an impressive campaign for the Blues’ youth team.
Meanwhile, Chelsea’s talented 19-year-old midfielder Ruben Loftus-Cheek has had his say on his club manager Josè Mourinho’s critical comments a few weeks ago during their post-season friendly win over Sydney FC.
Stones has established himself as one of the Premier League’s best young defenders at Merseyside over the past two seasons and is sure to give his team-mate’s a boost.
Everton centre-back John Stones, who was forced to sit out the opening two games due to strict rules over concussion injuries, is set to start tonight for Southgate’s youngsters.
Pre-match reading? Why not! Have a read of the match preview – written by Conor de Smith on the VAVEL homepage.
Predicted team line-up’s coming shortly.
It’s unfortunate for the talented youngster as he has been impressive down the left flank when utilized, albeit sparingly. His ideal replacement is almost certainly going to be Manchester United midfielder Jesse Lingard, whose sweetly-struck volley gave his side their first points of the tournament.
Tottenham forward Alex Pritchard, who enjoyed a successful loan spell at Sky Bet Championship side Brentford last term, has unfortunately been ruled out of action for the rest of the competition due to an ankle injury sustained against Sweden in the previous game.
Indeed, it’s a possibility. Going into tonight’s encounter, the Young Lions have three points to their name. Sweden are joint on points but have more goals conceded, so as it stands will be in contention for an Olympic play-off against the third placed side from Group A, Czech Republic.
The focus will be on Gareth Southgate’s men: Can they banish their group stage hoodoo to progress into the last four?
STAT: In the four matches played between them during the tournament thus far, England and Italy have scored a combined total of just two goals.
It’s a must-win game for both sides, which makes it all the more interesting as a spectacle this evening.
England U21 vs Italy U21 Live Score
Both sides coincidentally started off their respective tournaments with losses. England were outplayed for the majority of their opening game, and lost by a slender one-goal margin to Portugal. Meanwhile the Italians, who took the lead through a Domenico Berardi penalty in the first-half, lost two-one to Sweden thanks to second-half strikes from John Guidetti and Kiese Thelin.
Good evening everyone! My name is Mosope Ominiyi, and welcome to tonight’s live commentary of England U21 vs Italy U21 in the 2015 UEFA European under-21 Championships, hosted by the Czech Republic. Tonight’s intriguing fixture will take place at the Andrúv stadion in Olomouc with (Free £25 bet offer) Kick-off scheduled for a 7.45pm start (UK time).
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