Leeds United youngster Charlie Cresswell was among a number of England U21 stars to receive praise from coach Lee Carsley after a dominant win over Germany at the European Championships. The Three Lions U21s boss rung the changes for the final game of Group C having already qualified for the knockout stages of the tournament.
However, England turned in a dominant display to top the group with a 100 per cent record. Cresswell made his competition bow having sat out of the two wins over Czech Republic and Israel. The Whites defender kept a clean sheet on his return to the starting line-up with Cameron Archer and Harvey Elliot's first-half strikes giving England all three points. Cresswell will now hope to keep his place for Sunday's quarter-final vs Portugal.
The future of the 20-year-old has been up in the air given his recent loan spell with Championship side Millwall and there had been some suggestion he'd be moved on under Jesse Marsch. However, the American's departure and relegation to the Championship could hand Cresswell an opportunity to stake his claim in the starting XI having impressed at the Den last season.
The centre-half missed the Lions' run in towards the end of the Championship campaign after fracturing his eye socket. Cresswell wore a protective mask for England during the win over Germany.
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Carsley told UEFA: "We talk about the whole team defending, as opposed to just the defence. I thought Levi [Colwill] and Taylor [Harwood-Bellis] as well as Jarrad [Branthwaite] and Charlie [Cresswell] have done outstandingly at centre-back, and obviously James [Trafford] in goal.
"As a whole, we've defended really well from full-back areas, with midfielders and forwards. It was really pleasing to see, right at the end of the game, players making blocks on the edge of the box and blocking crosses. It's good to see.
""We thought it was a really difficult game. We knew preparing for the game that it was going to be a tough one. We were lucky enough to play Germany in one of the international windows in a friendly.
"We knew the quality that they had. Tactically they're very difficult to break down and you've seen that in the game today. We were fortunate to take our chances.
"Germany had some really good chances but didn't take them. We're really happy with the result but more importantly the performance."
