Whatever Lee Carsley goes on to achieve in his managerial career, this will be very hard to beat. England Under-21s had been pegged back by Germany after racing into a 2-0 lead with goals for Harvey Elliott and Omari Hutchinson and those of a negative disposition could be forgiven for thinking back to the 1970 World Cup quarter-finals, when Sir Alf Ramsey’s reigning champions were eliminated after extra time by West Germany in the same scenario.
But with Thomas Tuchel watching on from the stands after dashing across the Atlantic to be here, Carsley – who was not even born back then – clearly had no such thoughts. Instead, he boldly gambled by taking off Elliott and the captain, James McAtee, and was rewarded by the substitute Jonathan Rowe scoring with almost his first touch. It means the Young Lions have followed in the footsteps of Dave Sexton’s sides more than 40 years ago by winning successive European titles and their fourth in total. On this evidence, the future looks very bright indeed.
