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England vs Germany – Under 21’s Match Preview

We have reached the Semi Final stage of the UEFA European Under 21 Championships and this evening will see two old foes once again pitted together as Aidy Boothroyd’s England are paired up with Stefan Kuntz’s Germany, with the winner going on to the Final on Friday night.

For England there passage to this evening was booked after topping Group A, an opening game draw against Sweden raised some question marks as this group of young lions look to emulate their Under 20 counterparts who recently won the FIFA World Cup in South Korea.

But since then they have gone from strength to strength and two successive wins over both Slovakia and Poland has bought them to this encounter with Germany. Stefan Kuntz’s side picked up wins against both the Czech Republic and Denmark before losing to Luigi Di Biagio’s Italy in the final group game.

Thankfully though the defeat was by the most slender of margins as they lost by a solitary goal to the Italians. This meant that Germany still had a very healthy goal difference and as long as they did not concede again they would progress as the best runners-up in the group section.

Germany’s +4 record just edged out Slovakia’s +3 and that meant there would be no chance for Slovakia to exact revenge for their group stage defeat by England and we are now set for this titanic struggle as the future of these two footballing powerhouses go head to head.

England have injury doubts in the shape of Nathan Redmond and Nathaniel Chalobah will both have fitness this morning to see if they are able to take part later on, both players went off in the win over Poland and manager Aidy Boothroyd will be sweating on the fitness of these two key men.

In regards to Germany they have been unchanged in their three group matches but after that defeat to Italy on Saturday it is felt that Stefan Kuntz will ring the changes especially as England have the slight advantage of an extra 24 hours rest going into this game.

I run a not so scientific poll yesterday which has just concluded and according to my twitter fanbase (feel free to follow me if not already) here is what they think will happen tonight

As you can see it is close, very close and rightfully so. I think it’s fair to say that the balance of opinion is just about right on this one as it could go either way, England do have the momentum and have looked stronger with each game. I think it’s one of those ones where you just have to sit back and watch the action unfold. It should be a good one though – Kick off time 5pm (UK), try and get out of work early if you can.

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