European Under-19 Championship

opr

Being hosted in Estonia starting on Tuesday.

http://www.uefa.com/under19/index.html

Two groups with the top two from each going into the semi finals.

Group A
Estonia
Portugal
Greece
Spain

Group B
Serbia
France
England
Croatia

Opening fixtures - 3 July 2012 (Good few of the matches are being shown live on Eurosport)

15:30 England U19 v Croatia U19
15:30 Greece U19 v Spain U19
16:45 Serbia U19 v France U19
18:45 Estonia U19 v Portugal U19

Spain are heavy favourites as usual but I quite fancy Portugal. They've what many believe to be a new golden generation within this group of youngsters. This Portuguese side have come up the age groups together. The squad is comprised entirely of players from Sporting, Benfica and Porto apart from Joao Teixeira who recently signed for Liverpool from Sporting.

Seven of the players are from the Sporting team which took place in the Nextgen series this year. Despite them somehow getting knocked out that side was one of the best youth teams I've ever watched. The striker Betinho is certainly one that looks like he could be a future star.

Opr

Liam O

A striker? From Portugal? Sorry, not buying that one for a second.

BKC

Should be a good watch. Do you know anything about Estonia? Did they get automatic qualification as hosts or did they have to qualify? Thinking of backing Portugal to beat them...

opr

BKC wrote: »

Should be a good watch. Do you know anything about Estonia? Did they get automatic qualification as hosts or did they have to qualify? Thinking of backing Portugal to beat them...

Been looking at the same thing on the handicap. Estonia got in as hosts. They've had some matches in the build up in something called the Baltic cup in which they lost all three games.

http://www.futbol24.com/team/UEFA/Estonia-U19/

In contrast Portugal have won 5 out of six matches in qualifying drawing the other while scoring 29 goals along the way in those matches. It looks a complete mismatch on paper but I guess they are the hosts and should have big support.

Opr

opr

First two matches kick off at 3.30pm

England U19 - Croatia U19
Greece U19 - Spain U19

England squad with players involved form each club.

Full squad: Sam Johnstone (United), Connor Ripley (Middlesbrough); Eric Dier (Sporting Lisbon), Luke Garbutt (Everton), Michael Keane (United), Jack Robinson (Liverpool), Tom Thorpe (United); Conor Coady (Liverpool), Ross Barkley (Everton), Nathaniel Chalobah (Chelsea), Harry Kane (Tottenham), John Lundstram (Everton), Nathan Redmond (Birmingham), George Thorne (West Brom); Benik Afobe (Arsenal), Saido Berahino (West Brom), Robert Hall (West Ham), Hallam Hope (Everton).

Two players involved from premier league clubs for Spain - Denis Suárez (Man City) and Suso (Liverpool)

Opr

Francie Barrett

Was Michael Keane the lad that played underage for Ireland?

Francie Barrett

Was Michael Keane the lad that played underage for Ireland?

Melion

Looking forward to watching Spain today. Suso is a star

Dickerty

opr wrote: »

England squad with players involved form each club.

So few of those England players with any first team experience. And at a reserve or youth team level, it's as much about toughening them up as it is about developing their skills.

I saw a stat earlier - Spain have won this tournament half of the times it has been played (5 out of 10 since it changed from U-18)...

redzerdrog

Francie Barrett wrote: »

Was Michael Keane the lad that played underage for Ireland?

I think it is his brother

LiamMc

Uefa history of U19 and previous U18 Tournaments
http://www.uefa.com/under19/history/index.html

Liam Touhy's charges in 1984 in Soviet Union, their group was in Leningrad.
http://www.uefa.com/under19/history/season=1984/index.html
They got to the Semis and qualified for the next U20 World Cup also held in Soviet Union, their group was in Tbilisi and they played Brazil, Spain(?) and Saudi Arabia.


An interesting comparison would be the Republic of Ireland (U18) v. Germany (u18) squads in 1998 and the World Cup squads 2002.

After Edit:
Liam Touhy qualified for the previous two U18 Finals aswell. Just missing out in the groups to eventual winners France in 1983.

LiamMc

Spain 2-0 up at half-time against Greece,

Spain's goals by Jesé Rodríguez (Real Madrid Castilla) segunda division side and Derik Osede (Real Madrid).

Croatia take the lead against England, but England equalise

mar-z

Francie Barrett wrote: »

Was Michael Keane the lad that played underage for Ireland?

redzerdrog wrote: »

I think it is his brother

Michael played underage for Ireland but has since declared for England. His twin Will has played for England through underage (and is currently injured afaik)

LiamMc

Group A Greece 1:2 Spain FT

Group B Croatia 1:1 England FT
Serbia 0:3 France HT

Keane got booked in injury time.

opr

Comfortable 3-0 win for Portugal. Betinho despite getting a goal was poor tonight. Cancelo the right back and the guy in the centre Ca I thought looked very good. Should be a smashing game between Spain and them on Friday.

Opr

G.K.

Where are you watching it opr?

opr

G.K. wrote: »

Where are you watching it opr?

Eurosport 1/2 are showing the matches live. They had three out of the four games live today.

Opr

CongoPowers

opr wrote: »

and the guy in the centre Ca I thought looked very good.

Cheers, I was going to watch to have a look at him, but forgot all about it.

Kiwi_knock

Semi Final Draw (Both matches to be played on the 12th)

Spain v France
England v Greece

Watched the English match today, they were poor against an under strength French team. Played very much like the Senior team, did not look comfortable on the ball except for a few short passages of the game. Robinson was shocking at LB as well, looked like he never played football before.

CongoPowers

Spain just beat France 4-2 on penos after a 3-3 draw. Deulofeu played rubbish, but scored twice and put away the winning penalty. Such a CR-ish performance.

They play Greece in the final.

ArmaniJeanss

Spain Greece final just kicked off on Eurosport.