News Archive

Under 21 European Championship

Spain 1 - Serbia 0

Spain’s under 21 side completed the group stage of the European Championships with a 1-0 victory over Serbia which gives them maximum points from the three matches. Having already made sure of first place in their mini-league three days ago, Celades changed all eleven of his players for this game. They were lucky not to go behind though when Veljkovic and Djurdjevic missed early opportunities for the East Europeans, but a few minutes later Carlos Soler wasted an easy chance, and later on in the first half Denis Suárez opened the scoring after Williams and Odriozola combined to set him up. Two minutes after that Serbia were left with ten men when Djurdjevic was shown a second yellow card for catching Merino with his elbow, and only some good saves by Manojlovic prevented Suárez, Williams and Mayoral from increasing the scoreline. Spain’s opponents in the semi-finals will not be known until the final group games are completed tomorrow, although Portugal are out after they fell a goal short of overtaking Slovakia as the best runners-up, and so either Slovakia themselves or the winners of group C (most likely Germany) will be their rivals. (23.06.17)

PS In the end, Spain's opponents will be Italy after they beat Germany in the last match. Germany still qualify though as the best runners-up, and they will play England in the other semi-final. (24.06.17)