Inside England's U21 Euros win: ‘Creative' selections, dodgeball drills and padel

New York Times

a day ago

Not everyone believes in fate, but sport has a funny way of making life feel like more than just coincidence.
For England head coach Lee Carsley, positive omens surrounded him before this summer's Under-21 European Championship had even begun. Yes, he was coming into this tournament as a reigning champion after leading his team to glory in 2023, but he was also looking to repeat history.
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The only other times England had lifted the U21 Euros also came with back-to-back successes, in 1982 and 1984. Those sides beat West Germany and Spain in their finals, providing a symmetry to Carsley's finals that seemed almost too good to be true. That was until Germany hit the crossbar in added time of both the regular 90 minutes and extra time on Saturday.
Having survived those close shaves, England and Carsley are now able to celebrate (again), beating Germany 3-2 in this year's dramatic final in Slovakia, but it was far from plain sailing. This is the story of how they did it.
Upon arrival at St. George's Park, England's base in Burton-on-Trent, there are constant reminders of the 2023 European Championship triumph.
Photos of their trophy lift in Georgia are side-by-side with those of the women's team lifting the home Euros in 2022. These are accompanied by photos of the men's senior team's highlights, but when you walk into reception, the silverware looking back at you is an U21 European Championship trophy with a solitary medal laid in front of it.
There is pride in what the group of 2023 accomplished, but not a reliance on those memories. Going into this summer's European Championship, Carsley said he had spoken about his previous group of winners 'not much at all'. This squad had different challenges to face, and those started well before it was time to fly to Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia.
Centre-backs Jarrad Branthwaite (Everton) and Taylor Harwood-Bellis (Southampton) were expected to have important roles this summer. The pair had each captained the U21s in their two matches before this summer, against Portugal and France, while Harwood-Bellis actually captained the 2023 side. But on what was supposed to be a celebratory day in mid-May, the final game at Goodison Park, they suffered hamstring and ankle injuries within 10 minutes of each other.
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As the tournament drew closer, England then lost Liam Delap and Jobe Bellingham, who joined Chelsea and Borussia Dortmund at the Club World Cup. Carsley did not begrudge either their move, but admitted the sudden loss of so many key players would mean England had to 'be creative' with team selections and would likely grow into the tournament.
This knowledge and the location of England's tournament base helped take the pressure away early on. With Bratislava the second-smallest capital city in mainland Europe based on population (479,431 according to DATAcube in February this year), there was a sense of normality that can sometimes be lost in bigger cities.
It meant that staying in a hotel right next to the city's main shopping district was not an issue.
Players and staff tended to have two to four hours of downtime each day and were allowed to wander the city as the risk of being mobbed was so low. This was a luxury Carsley tried to afford the senior team when in interim charge last autumn, but the dynamic of Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham strolling around town is totally different to players who may only be recognised by the odd football fan.
This being Bratislava, the big attractions upon walking into the shopping centre were a Starbucks, a Primark and a Tesco Express. If those did not tickle the fancy, the Danube river was less than a five-minute walk away and provided some staff members with good views on their morning runs. Bratislava Castle, which towers over the city, was also a short walk through the old town but the preferred option for players on the rare day off was to head to Bratislava's padel arena, a 15-minute drive north of their hotel.
A 20-minute drive in the opposite direction and you arrived at England's main training base in the quiet town of Samorin, which has a population only slightly larger than Bournemouth's 11,000 capacity Vitality Stadium. At most, a handful of autograph hunters found the stadium, but the calm and casual vibe was not disrupted. In fact, sessions at Samorin needed an element of fun with the weather consistently teetering in the high-20s and low-30s affecting how long players could train for.
If there was one thing that demonstrated the youth in the squad, it was their commentary of a pre-training dodgeball drill. They had to run through the middle of two lines of opposition players without getting hit, but as soon as one ball hit skin, the throwing group erupted in Chris Eubank Sr. impressions. Cries of 'Lick him up! Lick him up! Rastarafi' rang through the air.
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Then it was Marseille forward, and scorer of the final's winning goal, Jonathan Rowe's turn.
He decided not to run, but walk the first half of the way through the crowd, almost teasing them. That strategy didn't end too well for him, but bonded those who became intent on stopping the 22-year-old from 'clip farming' as he knew cameras were rolling.
Jonathan Rowe told to 'stop clip farming' as he gets hit in a pre-training exercise 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/p3Qvn6GtnJ
— Art de Roché (@ArtdeRoche) June 14, 2025
Rowe was one of the early symbols of Carsley's need to 'be creative' with his line-ups. England started all three group games in a 4-2-2-2 shape, with Rowe, James McAtee of Manchester City and Liverpool's Harvey Elliott masquerading as forwards. Rowe and Elliott both scored in the 3-1 opening win over the Czech Republic, but England struggled to kick on, with a goalless draw against Slovenia and a 2-1 loss to Germany bringing the group stage to a close.
Germany had made 11 changes for that final group game and were 1-0 up within three minutes. When they were 2-0 ahead at the break, it felt as though they might run away with the game and possibly the tournament. But Carsley knew this could be a make-or-break moment and produced a triple substitution ahead of the second half. Brooke Norton-Cuffy, McAtee and Stansfield replaced Samuel Iling-Junior, Elliott and Rowe and England were much more threatening, scoring late in the second half.
'It was only going to be a matter of time before they clicked,' Carsley said ahead of meeting Germany again in the final. 'Some games you lose, but it's the way that you lose. I spoke to them at half-time (of that group game) about making sure that when things are 50/50, you keep moving forward. Or worse-case scenario you stand still, you don't go backwards. They moved forward.'
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Up to that point Elliot Anderson had been their standout player, creating numerous openings that were not finished. His craft and precision off both feet brought an urgency England needed to feed off, that finally came when they met Spain in the quarter-finals.
Within two minutes it looked as though they had got off to a nightmare start. Italian referee Simone Sozza had pointed to the spot after the ball struck Toulouse defender Charlie Cresswell's arm. A sigh of relief followed shortly after the decision was overturned with a VAR review. England's dream was back on within 10 minutes as McAtee struck from a corner, and then Elliott doubled the lead five minutes later.
Some may call that turn of events luck, but for a few involved, it felt destined to happen. Six players in this summer's U21s squad won the 2022 Under-19s European Championship final against Israel in the exact same stadium where they faced Spain. Norton-Cuffy, Alex Scott, Jarell Quansah, Teddy Sherman-Lowe, Ronnie Edwards and Iling-Junior were the players at the Anton Malatinský Stadium, home of Spartak Trnava, three years ago.
'Walking in today, we all looked at each other and said 'good memories — must be a sign we're going to win the game',' Norton-Cuffy said after the win against Spain. 'That gave us more confidence as well because it was all familiar. We were in the same changing room too.'
Key to England's shift in momentum in the knockouts was the introduction of Birmingham City's Jay Stansfield to the starting line-up. Carsley moved to a more conventional 4-2-3-1 with Stansfield as the only natural centre-forward in the squad, and Norton-Cuffy went on to call him an 'absolute pitbull' for the work he got through at the top of the pitch.
Four days later, in the 2-1 semi-final win over the Netherlands played in 33-degree heat, it was Stansfield again who set the tone physically. He had to be smart about when to use his energy to harass the Dutch back line and goalkeeper, but allowed England to control matters, even when they were without the ball. When they had possession, it has been Ipswich Town's Omari Hutchinson whose mazy dribbles have lit up the tournament.
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From the opening game against the Czech Republic to the semi-final against the Dutch, his receiving the ball has consistently been followed by Carsley shouting variations of 'take him on!', 'run at him!' and 'go on!'. That had benefited England as, before the final, no other player at the tournament had completed more dribbles than the Arsenal academy graduate (24).
Former Arsenal, Chelsea and England defender Ashley Cole, Carsley's assistant, made similar shouts and was incredibly hands-on throughout the tournament. As he did at Birmingham City under Wayne Rooney, Cole took charge of attacking and defensive set pieces, but also led match debriefs as Carsley's focus quickly moved onto England's next opponent.
Cole also took a keen interest in individuals. Newcastle United's Tino Livramento spoke of doing one-to-one work with Cole once team sessions had finished, where emphasis would be placed on improving his body positioning in certain areas of the pitch. There was a glimpse of this before one session when Cole was in deep conversation with Hutchinson, adjusting the position of his body as he spoke.
England U21s out for open training pre-Germany
Ashley Cole in a particularly close conversation with Omari Hutchinson before the warm-ups pic.twitter.com/uf10xSle63
— Art de Roché (@ArtdeRoche) June 17, 2025
Equally as important as winning the tournament was Carsley's other objective of developing a group of players for the senior team.
Nine players went on to represent England's seniors after winning the 2023 tournament, while Fulham's Emile Smith Rowe had made his debut two years earlier. Chelsea's Cole Palmer was the shining example of what a strong tournament could do for a player. A year after his free kick was deflected in off Curtis Jones against Spain to win the U21s final, he scored the equaliser for the seniors in the Euro 2024 final against the same nation.
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This time around, the end goal is different. During this tournament's group stages, Carsley said: 'Prior to camp, it was important that we put a picture of the World Cup up because it's 12 months away. We want to win the Euros but it's more important that they're involved around the World Cup. That's what this job is about, putting players in positions that help them progress through to the senior team.'
As a nation, Germany are likely England's most direct example to learn from. This year's final was a repeat of the 2009 final, when England faced a Germany side that included Manuel Neuer, Jerome Boateng, Mats Hummels, Benedict Howedes, Sami Khedira and Mesut Ozil. Germany won that match 4-0 and that group of players helped provide a strong core for their 2014 World Cup-winning squad five years later in Brazil.
Former Arsenal and England winger Theo Walcott has spoken about the seriousness he sensed from that Germany side. That shift is happening with England at youth level.
'That's definitely a generational thing,' Carsley said in response. 'Hopefully the U21s from the last campaign can be that team because winning one tournament is great, but it's the dominating that we want to get better at. There's a big difference between hope and belief. We're producing a generation of English players that believe they can win in these tournaments.'
For this final, Carsley was keen to keep preparation as normal as possible to give it the feeling of just another match. While good luck messages from high-profile celebrities have been made for England teams in the past, he did not want this group to play the occasion instead of the game. The approach worked.
England manager Thomas Tuchel had been at the Club World Cup but travelled in time to watch the final in person. When he was not in Slovakia, the Football Association's chief football officer Dan Ashworth and technical director John McDermott had been there as a sounding board for Carsley.
Their presence was valuable as this was not a tournament in which the emphasis was solely on what happened on the pitch. That objective of preparing players to make the jump to Tuchel's first team has been mentioned throughout 2025, and may be best seen in Newcastle United's Tino Livramento.
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While some may assume he is beyond the level of an Under-21 European Championship squad, Tuchel felt his presence in Slovakia would be more beneficial than playing two friendlies with the seniors. In fact, this was Livramento's first international tournament at any age group for England, despite having the experience of playing in three full Premier League seasons.
Now he and his 22 team-mates have the experience of winning for England on the biggest stage before they set about breaking into the senior squad. For Carsley and Tuchel, they will want this summer to have created a generation of believers, not hopers, as another major tournament beckons.