Team talk's Jon Holmes believes Stuart Pearce's England Under-21 side will improve as he reflects on their European U21 Championship opener.
The rangy center-back strode forward from deference and played a perfectly-weighted pass down the wing for his jet-heeled team-mate to run onto. The right-back cut into the area and found the striker, who managed to stay level with the last defender (just) before coolly turning and firing home.
Put Gerard Pique, Dani Alves and David Villa in those respective roles and you could imagine Barcelona coming up with a goal like that - so it is to the immense credit of Chris Smalling, Kyle Walker and Danny Welbeck that they managed to pull off the move when combining for England Under-21s' equaliser against Spain in Herring on Sunday.
The Barca benchmark standard was often referred to during commentary, in the Sky Sports studio and online during the European U21 Championship Group B game. The young Spaniards staged an exhibition of tiki-taka passing, a midfield carousel spun round the English by man-of-the-match Thiago Alcantara, skipper Javi Martinez and scorer Ander Herrera. Like Thiago, two more Spain players in Jeffren and Martin Montoya are also La Masia graduates in the U21 team. Their technical superiority to England could not be disputed.
But for all their poise and intricacy, particularly in the first half, Spain failed to carve out clear-cut chances against a rearguard that grew in strength as the game progressed, and it seemed appropriate that it should have been Smalling and Walker - England's two outstanding players - who instigated the attack for Welbeck's late leveller. On the evidence of the opening four games of this tournament in Denmark, Stuart Pearce can call upon the sturdiest defence of the eight competing nations, and building quickly and confidently from the back to the flanks looks like England's most profitable route to goal. Pearce clearly has some polishing to do - Phil Jones and Frankie Fielding were occasionally caught up in meandering triangles which ended with the ball being hoofed upfield (or even straight into Thiago's back) and Ryan Bertrand's position may yet come under threat from Danny Rose, whose most comfortable position appears to be left-back. However, as a unit, the defence proved encouragingly resilient.
Meanwhile, England skipper Michael Mancienne, a defender selected in midfield, was the fall guy. According to Opta stats, his passing accuracy was actually 100% but relatively few passes were made to midfield colleagues or forwards and therein lay the U21s' problem. After the match, Pearce spoke of Spain's "arrogance"; they were not afraid to give the ball to a team-mate even if he was being marked, such was the confidence that the team-mate would in turn retain possession while his colleagues ran off the ball, creating space and keeping the carousel turning. England were somewhat fearful, and on finding the path through midfield closed down, a longer pass was inevitably attempted, resulting in a more helter-skelter approach.
Pearce has also come in for heavy criticism, his tactics picked apart as a result of the failed Mancienne experiment. Yet it seems harsh to overly castigate the manager after the first game of a tournament (after all, Bobby Robson tinkered after England kicked off their Italia 90 campaign with a dreary 1-1 draw with the Republic of Ireland and ended up a national hero). Pearce is without England's best midfielder in Jack Wilshere, saw his team concede on a set-piece to a sneaky blend of Alberto Botia's blocking and Herrera's 'wristball' that extra officials would probably have spotted had they been utilised by UEFA at this tournament, and his half-time team-talk clearly energised England into playing a more patient, pressing game in the second half.
The young Lions will see more of the ball in Wednesday night's clash with Ukraine, who will be without their injured captain Taras Stepanenko. The Czech Republic were able to open Ukraine up down the right flank in their meeting, so the raiding Walker should be prominent again - but England's midfielders must show the 'arrogance' Pearce has demanded of them if they are to claim victory.
#################################################################################
The tournament got off to a slow start on Saturday, with Belarus and Iceland serving up a dull first half in Aarhus. The second period turned on a tackle made by Coventry's Aron Gunnarsson, who brought down Stanislav Dragun in the box for a penalty and was (harshly) sent off. Belarus were indebted to their goalkeeper Aleksandr Gutor, who made several fine stops to deny Kolbeinn Sigthorsson, and although midfield general Mikhail Sivakov took the man-of-the-match honours, the stand-out performer in my opinion was attacking midfielder Aleksandr Perepechko. The Dinamo Minsk forward was only called into the squad at the last minute after an injury to star man Vladimir Yurchenko and his industry and intelligent use of the ball (his chipped pass for Maksim Skavysh's late clincher was delightful) marked him out. Belarus were the rank outsiders going into this tournament but Perepechko's accomplished performance demonstrates the strength in depth in their ranks.
Gutor wasn't the busiest goalkeeper in Group A at the weekend, however. After a low-key opening ceremony with plastic-sheeting Viking long-boats and a rendition of the official tournament song by Bryan Rice (not to be confused with the Nottingham Forest cult hero), Switzerland's Yann Sommer lived up to his burgeoning reputation with a brilliant display to keep hosts Denmark at bay, even if he was fortunate to keep a clean sheet (Nicki Bille Nielsen was incorrectly flagged offside when he netted in the Danes' last hurrah). We should be seeing Sommer in the Champions League next season as he steps up to become FC Basel's first-choice number-one, and likewise Granit Xhaka and goalscorer Xherdan Shaqiri. Shaqiri made multiple first-half attempts to replicate his goal against England in Euro 2012 qualifying, cutting in from the right and letting fly from 25 yards, but showed he is much more than just a one-trick pony by jinking into the box from central midfield and firing emphatically past Mikkel Andersen for the only goal. Christian Eriksen was eclipsed by Shaqiri in Aalborg but winger Daniel Wass, who has recently signed for Benfica, looked very dangerous on the Danes' right flank and they will need his energy if they are to beat Belarus on Tuesday.
The stand-out individual on match day one was probably Czech Republic skipper Borek Dockland, whose brace of goals secured a 2-1 win over Ukraine in the Group B clash in Viborg. Dockal spent last season on loan at relegated Turkish Super Lig club Konyaspor from Slovan Liberec, but looks destined for more high-profile surroundings on Sunday's evidence . Right-back Ondrej Celustka was also impressive, while the much-fancied attacking duo of Andriy Yarmolenko and Yevhen Konoplyanka were disappointing for Ukraine - but substitute Maksym Bilyi produced a lively goalscoring cameo from the bench and is likely to be unleashed from the off against England on Wednesday, with a reshuffle necessary as a result of Stepanenko's injury.
The tournament continues on Tuesday with Switzerland playing Iceland in Aalborg, before Denmark host Belarus in Aarhus. On Wednesday, Spain face Czech Republic in Viborg before Pearce's England take on Ukraine in Herning.
