Leeds United winger Crysencio Summerville has already reached a pivotal point in the U21 European Championships. Summerville started the Netherlands’ first group game of the competition and he'll hope to be involved once more tonight as Erwin van de Looi’s side take on Portugal in Tbilisi.
The Dutch drew their opening fixture with Belgium 0-0 and they know failure to beat Portugal could leave them in a precarious position when it comes to their hopes of qualifying through Group A. Only two teams will progress to the knock out stages and Georgia currently top the group having claimed a 2-0 win over the Portuguese.
The Netherlands can’t be eliminated this evening, but a loss could potentially see them fall three points behind the pace with one game left to play in the group. Summerville, then, will be keen to play a key role this evening and help Jong Oranje bolster their hopes of progressing to the quarter-finals with a win.
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Leeds have six representatives at the competition being held in Georgia and Romania, but the winger is the only one scheduled to feature today. Charlie Cresswell, Leo Hjelde, Illan Meslier, Kristoffer Klaesson and Wilfried Gnonto will be striving to be involved for their respective nations on Sunday.
Unfortunately, of the above quintet, only Gnonto got any game time in the first round of group stage games. The Italian came off the bench at half-time against France and failed to make the impact needed to help his country avoid a 2-1 defeat in their opener.
As such, Italy now face what has the potential to be an all or nothing clash with Switzerland on Sunday evening. The Swiss beat Hjelde and Klaesson’s Norway in their opener and they now have the potential to knock their neighbours out of the competition.
Gnonto can expect to play a key role on the night and having fallen short in the Nations League with the senior Italy side, he’ll be keen to keep his hopes of silverware this summer alive. As mentioned above, Norway lost their opener, a game both Leeds players watched from the bench, and they’re now considered big underdogs against France, who opted to select Lucas Chevalier in goal over Illan Meslier.
Cresswell was always going to struggle for game time in the competition, with Levi Colwill, Taylor Harwood-Bellis and Jarrad Branthwaite ahead of him in the pecking order for centre-back. But, that doesn’t mean he won’t be doing all he can to try and earn a spot in the side to face Israel, who drew with Germany last time out.
England know a win would be enough to seal their progression in the tournament for the first time since 2017.
