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UEFA European Under-21 Championship

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I watched Grujic playing for Serbia U21s yesterday. He played where Wijnaldum plays for us in central midfield. Picked up a yellow card really early in the game (3rd minute!) with a rash sliding tackle, and that limited his aggression for the rest of his time on the pitch.

Serbia played quite directly a lot of times, so the ball bypassed their central midfield often and he didn't really get too many touches. Off the ball, he looked to make runs often into the box when they attacked; had a shot opportunity blocked, and then missed a clear headed chance which would have put them level with Portgual. When he did get the ball, he showed good first touch and often played the ball quickly, both short and out wide into space for the wide forwards or full backs to latch onto.
 
They way he runs with the ball and the way he skips past players, reminds me of a faster version of a young Michael Laudrup.

By the looks of it, Real has got an absolutely gem of a player on their books here..
 
Knowing that our scouts aren't represented at the ongoing U21 Euros in Poland here's a list of names that will have entered the notebooks of the scouts that were at last nights game between Italy and Denmark.

Federico Bernadeschi, 23, Fiorentina
Gifted winger that oozed class almost every time he was on the ball yesteday. Strong, atheltic build and good pace too, looked a real player to me. Also, from his stats seems to be a-goal-per-three-games type of winger as well as a real creative outlet, capable of making defenders dizzy everywhere.

Unlike that Berardi lad, that looked sooo Italian in the most annoying way by constantly falling over, complaining, fainting injury and throwing hissy fits, Bernadeschi also looked very calm, cool and collected why I guess he could make it in England as well.

Lorenzo Pellegrini 23, Sassuolo
Apart from his rather spectacular scissor-kick goal he looked very assured and calm in midfield throughout and extremely attacking-minded in play and thought.

A 1.86 tall, strong build, athletic and goal-seeking central midfielder with a wide range of skills. Like his teammate Federico above, he also looked to have a calm head and the mental strengths to make outside Italy.

Christian Nørgaard, 23, Brøndby
By a long mile the best player for the struggling Danes and one if I have mentioned on here years ago when he was a part of the U17 Denmark team that tore it up. However, back then, he was an attacking midfielder playing in behind a number 9 but he's been schooled into a defensive/central midfielder and his improved physique alongside his range of natural attacking ability, his awareness and eye for the pass has turned him into a rather versatile and complete midfielder that actually still might end up at the highest shelf after having struggled in his late teens. Really impressive display and he bullied most of the Italian midfielders all night as well as he created and shaped the attacking play for the Danes.

His display last night will have raised a lot of eye-brows among the scouts there I believe..

Recommendation from me:
Buy Bernadeschi today, track Pellegrini and Nørgaard's progress wherever they may play come next Season.
 
Chiesa did well after coming on too.
[article]Federico Chiesa replaced Domenico Berardi after 67 minutes, and staked a serious claim to start against the Czech Republic.

The Fiorentina forward caused the Danish defence all sorts of problems, culminating in his fine cross for Petagna’s goal.

Following the 19-year-old’s breakthrough season for the Viola, Berardi and Federico Bernardeschi will be looking over their shoulders as Chiesa guns for their Azzurrini starting shirts.[/article]
 
Kay Age El said:
They way he runs with the ball and the way he skips past players, reminds me of a faster version of a young Michael Laudrup.

By the looks of it, Real has got an absolutely gem of a player on their books here..
Click to expand...

I seem to recall Michael Laudrup occasionally described as the most obvious Liverpool player never to play for Liverpool

Or maybe it was Brian.

Anyway
 
manwithnoname said:
I seem to recall Michael Laudrup occasionally described as the most obvious Liverpool player never to play for Liverpool

Or maybe it was Brian.

Anyway
Click to expand...
Michael, yeah, he even almost signed with us before he saw that we had decided to prolong his contract with one year - but with the overall salary staying the same, all on the day he had decided to sign .. he kinda didnt like that move and he then went to Juve instead. It still annoys him to this day as he wanted to play for us and just felt humiliated by it all.

That was in the mid 80s.. we haven't learned too much since it seems.
 
Grujic up again now for Serbia U21 vs Macedonia U21.

If someone is watching Spain U21 vs Portugal U21 later, please post your thoughts on Mikel Oyarzabal (Real Sociedad left winger), if he's fielded for Spain.
 
1-0 Serbia. Been a scrappy game with some rash tackles but no fraying of tempers yet. Grujic has picked up his second yellow of the tournament with another clumsy tackle; also tried to earn a cheap penalty in the box that was ignored by the ref (lucky not to get a second yellow for that).
 
Another poor tackle by Grujic; he's very close to getting sent off with a second yellow now. He's also had a headed chance go wide and smacked a shot straight at the keeper.

And he's just made another clumsy tackle and somehow escaped again. Macedonia nearly scored from that free kick from 30 yards out.
 
Bruma with an absolute beauty against Spain, pulling one back so it's 1-2 now.. some really special goals in this tournament.
 
We won 3-0 BTW to confirm our semi-finals spot. Avoid Spain and we have a chance of making the final if the team continue to play as they have done for the past 1.5 games.
 
Kay Age El said:
Could be some tasty semis indeed..
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It's looking very likely Spain, Germany and Czech Rep (assuming they beat Denmark) to join us.

Portugal need a very big win (4 goals or possibly even more) vs Macedonia so that's very unlikely based on form, and would still need the Czechs to only win by a single goal.

Italy could still make it too but need to beat Germany and have the Czechs not win and they'd still need to out-perform Portugal too, so even less likely.

England vs Czech and Spain vs. Germany is the best possible outcome, anything else and we're going home I suspect.
 
Frogfish said:
It's looking very likely Spain, Germany and Czech Rep (assuming they beat Denmark) to join us.

Portugal need a very big win (4 goals or possibly even more) vs Macedonia so that's very unlikely based on form, and would still need the Czechs to only win by a single goal.

Italy could still make it too but need to beat Germany and have the Czechs not win and they'd still need to out-perform Portugal too, so even less likely.

England vs Czech and Spain vs. Germany is the best possible outcome, anything else and we're going home I suspect.
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I agree, and though I'll probably put a wager on my fellow countrymen against the Czech, as expected they've had very little to offer in the first two games against arguably better opposition.

All in all this new format has proved to be a success imo, only the winners progress as well as the best placed 2nd team in the three groups. This has paved the way for some very attractive and attacking minded games as more or less only a win counts.

I'd go as far to say that it would even make sense if FIFA were to expand the number of nations to say 48 in the WC and then play after a somewhat similar format - making sure all ties (more or less) becomes mouth-watering, highly action-packed and unforeseeable.
 
Zohore from Cardiff could become a top striker one day.. a physical masterpiece, skilled and lethal.

My guess is he is in the Premiership come next Season.
 
Upsets galore today (well, both matches) as Denmark thumped Czech 4-2 and Italy beat Germany 1-0 to top the group. Germany go through as best runners-up.

England, Italy, Spain and Germany in the semis.

Germany-England
Italy-Spain
 
Interesting stats on our Youth this Summer :

England youth (U17, Toulon, U20, U21) tournament record 2017: Played - 20 Won - 17 Drawn - 2 Lost - 1 (on penalties) For - 45 Against - 11

Taken from Twitter.
 
Frogfish said:
Upsets galore today (well, both matches) as Denmark thumped Czech 4-2 and Italy beat Germany 1-0 to top the group. Germany go through as best runners-up.

England, Italy, Spain and Germany in the semis.

Germany-England
Italy-Spain
Click to expand...
Thats us out on Pens then. Start as they mean to go on.
 
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