3 weeks ago
25
Key events Show key events only Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature
26 min Conor Coady, the co-commentator on Channel 4, says this “feels like a second game that has come round really quickly”. That’s a fair assessment of England’s sluggish start.
All things being equal, Coady will be a fine pundit over the next 20 years – he’s a natural.
24 min England take a free-kick short to Elliott, who curls a long pass towards Cresswell at the far post. He mistimes his header and the ball goes behind off his shoulder. Even with a clean contact he would probably have tried to head the ball back across goal.
McAtee misses an excellent chance
21 min England should be in front. An attempted clearance from the edge of the area hit another Slovenia player and ricocheted to put McAtee through on goal in the inside-right channel. He passed the ball tamely across goal and wide with his right foot.
Rowe – whose presence forced the clearance that led to the chance – is frustrated that McAtee didn’t look for him at the far post.
20 min More work for Beadle, who has to scramble across his line save Cipot’s long-range shot at the second attempt. Cipot, who is contracted to the Serie B club Spezia, has been impressive up front.
19 min England enjoy some extended possession in the Slovenia half. Eventually Hackney runs into trouble, but then England counter-press is successful and they settle into another passing move.
17 min Quansah is forced into conceding another corner. England are in a game here; not that Lee Carsley will be surprised.
This time Seslar’s corner is headed away by Cresswell.
15 min “Does that yellow card mean Elliott is suspended for the next match? asks Joe Pearson.
No. It’s the other Elliott – Anderson – who is on a yellow card from the first game.
Actually, that gag, such as it was, don’t even work because Elliot Anderson only has one T in her first name. A triumph all round.
14 min “Is four double-barrelled surnames on the bench some kind of England record?” asks Andrew Goudie.
I’d be surprised if it is. The days of Peter Rhoades-Brown being a double-barrelled novelty are long gone.
Fine save by Beadle!
11 min Slovenia are all over England like a cheap cliche. Seslar’s nonchalant outswinging corner is headed across goal towards the unmarked Cipot. He watches the bounce and batters a first-time shot that is kicked away by Beadle – an excellent save because he had to react so quickly. It didn’t just hit his legs, which is often the case with saves like that.
9 min Elliott was booked for something or other just after that effort from Seslar.
Lovely effort from Seslar!
8 min Begic has time to curl a flat ball into the area towards Seslar, who improvises an overhead kick from 15 yards that loops over Beadle and onto the roof of the net. Seslar’s left foot looks like it has spent at a semester or two at Harvard.
6 min Cipot bursts down the right and is fouled by Quansah. There was no real need to give away a free-kick there – and it almost proved costly for England.
Seslar clipped a very dangerous cross into a crowd of players at the near post, and the ball eventually rolled just wide. It’s hard to see exactly what happened – there were so many players in the six-yard box – but I think it might have hit the legs of the unsighted keeper Beadle at one stage.
5 min Nothing much to report early on. A loose pass out of defence from Quanash was intercepted but nothing came of it.
2 min Slovenia are a good side, who finished top of their qualification group despite losing 4-0 at home to France*. They drew the return game – against a France team that included Desire Doue and Mathys Tel – and won five of the other six.
1 min England kick off from left to right as we watch. It really is warm out there, 28 degrees apparently. Little brisk.
The players are about to take the field on what looks a very warm evening in western Slovakia. Let’s have a quick reminder of the teams.
England (4-2-2-2) Beadle; Gray, Cresswell, Quansah, Livramento; Hackney, Anderson; Elliott, Nwaneri; McAtee, Rowe.
Substitutes: Simkin, Sharman-Lowe, Edwards, Fellows, Hutchinson, Norton-Cuffy, Egan-Riley, Hinshelwood, Iling-Junior, Stansfield, Scott, Morton.
Slovenia (4-2-3-1) Turk; Ilenic, Jevsenak, Golic, Kuzmic; Ostrc, Zeljkovic; Seslar, Begic, Brest; T Cipot.
Substitutes: Leban, Stubljar, Obric, Kojic, Krupic, Lorber, Jovanovic, Topalovic, Pecar, Pisek, Cuber Potocnik, Milic.
Referee Goga Kikacheishvili (Georgia)
“I really enjoy our under-21s,” says Ian Copestake. “Harvey Elliott can shine and feel the respect despite his haircut and these boys can just play free.”
Freedom makes the world go round.
Lee Carsley talks to Channel 4
There are a lot of areas [we can improve upon]. The challenge is to play with more control; it’s gonna be a tough game tonight. Slovenia are a strong team and we’ve struggled against them in the past.
Slovenia had a lot of chances against Germany, even though they lost 3-0, especially in the first half. We’re really aware of their strengths and we’ll try to expose their weaknesses where we can.
[On Ethan Nwaneri] He adds a lot. Everyone’s seen his quality; the key with Ethan is to make sure we don’t rush him, that we share his minutes around so that when he does play he has an impact. He’s been brilliant in the camp so far. You have to keep reminding yourself how old he is.
The players on a yellow card
-
England Elliot Anderson
-
Slovenia Mitja Ilenic, Srdan Kuzmic, Tjas Begic, Enrik Ostrc
The XIs
England (4-2-2-2) Beadle; Gray, Cresswell, Quansah, Livramento; Hackney, Anderson; Elliott, Nwaneri; McAtee, Rowe.
Substitutes: Simkin, Sharman-Lowe, Edwards, Fellows, Hutchinson, Norton-Cuffy, Egan-Riley, Hinshelwood, Iling-Junior, Stansfield, Scott, Morton.
Slovenia (4-2-3-1) Turk; Ilenic, Jevsenak, Golic, Kuzmic; Ostrc, Zeljkovic; Seslar, Begic, Brest; T Cipot.
Substitutes: Leban, Stubljar, Obric, Kojic, Krupic, Lorber, Jovanovic, Topalovic, Pecar, Pisek, Cuber Potocnik, Milic.
Referee Goga Kikacheishvili (Georgia)
England team news: Nwaneri starts
Lee Carsley makes two changes from the win over the Czech Republic: Middlesbrough’s Hayden Hackney and Arsenal’s Ethan Nwaneri replace Alex Scott and Omari Hutchinson.
Slovenia manager Andrej Razdrh sticks with the team that started against Germany. We’ll have the full XIs in a second.
The story so far
England beat the Czech Republic 3-1 thanks to goals from Harvey Elliott, Jonathan Rowe and Charlie Cresswell.
Slovenia were beaten 3-0 by Germany, with Stuttgart’s Nick Woltemade – who played with the big boys in the recent Nations League – scoring a hat-trick.
Preamble
And so to Nitra, where the holders England play Slovenia in their second group game of the European Under-21 Championship. A hard-fought victory over the Czech Republic means Lee Carsley’s side will almost certainly qualify for the quarter-finals if they win again today.
Fail and it will come to the last group game against Germany. But the likeliest scenario, certainly the ideal one for England, is that the only thing at stake in that game will be who finishes top of the group.
Kick off 5pm.
