Lee Carsley Aims for Under-21 Euro Hat-Trick as England Overcomes Germany for Consecutive Title.

Lee Carsley expressed his immense pride in his players following their hard-fought 3-2 victory over Germany after extra time in Bratislava, which secured their second consecutive Under-21 European Championship title. However, the manager is already looking ahead, aiming to carve out more history in two years’ time.

England faced a challenging fight to retain their crown, seeing a two-goal lead diminish due to strikes from Nelson Weiper and Paul Nebel. Yet, a late header from Jonathan Rowe in the 91st minute was enough to clinch the win.

This marked Rowe’s inaugural goal of the tournament, and Carsley commended the Marseille forward for seizing the opportunity when it arose.

Carsley told reporters at the post-match press conference: “Jonathan has been excellent whenever given a chance at Marseille, and he genuinely deserves his place in the squad.

“He may have felt he was on the fringes, but he more than earned his spot. He has started a few matches, made a significant impact off the bench, and his enthusiasm at the hotel and during training has been contagious.”

Germany may reflect on the final with a degree of disappointment, especially considering that the tournament’s leading scorer, Nico Woltemade, failed to register a single shot on target throughout the 120 minutes of play.

Discussing how they managed to contain the striker, Carsley stated: “Our two centre-backs, Jarrell Quansah and Charlie Cresswell, along with Alex (Scott) and Elliott (Anderson), deserve a lot of credit for that.

“We aimed to effectively box him in whenever the ball was near, knowing his potential threat.”

“We probably discussed him for about five minutes in total because I prefer to focus on our own attacking threats.”

The team’s success in Slovakia relied heavily on a lone striker system featuring Jay Stansfield. As the match progressed into the second half, Stansfield was substituted for a more defensive option in Brooke Norton-Cuffy. Rowe, introduced at the onset of extra time, made a swift impact in the striker role, scoring the pivotal goal.

Carsley’s choice to adopt a strikerless formation for the final 28 minutes turned out to be a key strategy for England’s victory.

“I always aim to keep as many attacking players on the field because my intent is to win and score. I believe the longer we keep Harvey (Elliott) and James (McAtee) on, the better our chances of creating or scoring are.

“To me, all substitutions are geared towards attack; I don’t want this generation of England players to just see out a game. I want us to score again, to pursue victory through goals rather than risking penalties or leaving outcomes to chance.

“They took this message on board; each time we launched an attack, we sought to score.”

England’s back-to-back triumphs echo those achieved in the 1980s under Dave Sexton, who also accomplished this feat.

Since then, the tournament has expanded, with the team playing six matches in just 16 days becoming a true whirlwind experience. Carsley credited the win to the collective effort of his squad and their unwavering belief in achieving success, all while keeping the possibility of pursuing an unprecedented hat-trick in 2027 in mind.

He added: “I’m not rushing to think too far ahead. Achieving Dave Sexton’s two wins in ’82 and ’84 was a fantastic target, and the most important thing is for the Under-21s to continue winning and developing players for the senior team.

“Chasing this is an exciting goal, and I’m certainly looking forward to it. It’s a remarkable challenge that hasn’t been accomplished before.

“However, we must give tremendous credit to this squad. I am incredibly proud of the players.”