Time to step up – Lee Carsley issues challenge to England Under-21s

Lee Carsley says it is time for England Under-21s to “step up” as their European Championship title defence continues with a quarter-final reunion with Spain.

It is two years since the Young Lions won the competition for the first time since 1984, and just the third time in their history, by beating the Spaniards 1-0 in a tense final in Georgia.

La Rojita will look to avenge that loss in Saturday’s quarter-final in Slovakia as England seek to keep their title defence alive by bouncing bounce back from Wednesday’s 2-1 defeat to Germany.

“I think it’s important that when people watch England Under-21s play back at home, they’re excited by the way they’re playing,” boss Carsley said.

“We want to see real attacking football, aggressive football, because what we’ve done in the past has got us to this position.

“If we’re going to win major tournaments, these are the moments where we have to step up.

“To get out of the group we must give them the positives for that. It’s always balanced with the losing the game, which is disappointing, especially in the manner that we did.

“Probably the first 20 minutes wasn’t great, but a lot of positives from that moment onwards in terms of still creating a lot of chances, a lot better in the second half.

“All of that has to go down to the players and the way they approached the second half and hopefully the plan is that they carry that now into the start of the game against Spain.”

Carsley’s England may boast some exciting talents and head into the quarter-final as holders, but Spain are considered the bookmakers’ favourites to win the Trnava encounter.

“I don’t feel like an underdog,” head coach Carsley said. “I think there’s still a massive expectation that against Spain we can perform, and that’s all we need to do.

“If we can perform, we can play to our ability, we’ve got a great chance of winning the game.

“I believe that Spain are a top team. Anyone that was with us in the last Euros, you have to beat all of the top teams and Spain are another team we’ve got a lot of respect for.

“The final that we had a couple of years ago was so close, could have gone either way. We scored a fortunate goal and played OK in the game.

“But there’s definitely a lot more to come from us if we’re going to progress.”