The next golden generation of British football
On October 16, the Ukrainian youth team, made up of players over 21 years of age, will play with their British peers as part of the third round of the Euro 2025 qualifying round. The match with the England U-21 team will be the first serious test for the renewed Ukrainian youth team. Let’s tell you why.
First serious opponent
Unai Melgosa, who led the Ukrainian team this summer, started with the youth team with a defeat from his peers in Germany. Not only was that match the first for a Spanish specialist at the helm of the youth team, it was also a test match. The 0:2 defeat was not exactly expected, but it certainly did not surprise anyone.
With official matches everything is much better: two victories in two qualifying matches played, not a single goal conceded. Another thing is that Ukraine must beat its opponents – Northern Ireland and Luxembourg – in any condition: with all due respect to the opponents, the difference in class between the teams is significant.
England also started confidently in qualifying: a dry victory over Luxembourg and a defeat of Serbia, to which the British scored nine goals, conceding only one. But it was the Serbian youth team that experts and analysts called the main competitors of the British and Ukrainians in the fight for a ticket to the final part.
England U-21 is approaching the match against Ukraine on a streak of eight wins in a row, seven of which are clean sheets.
Inconvenient opponent
Among other things, the British are an inconvenient rival for Ukraine. The blue-and-yellows met the British three times, losing twice and drawing once. The world record was recorded in the first ever match between Ukraine and England U-21 almost 12.5 years ago: in the final of Euro 2011 (0:0).
The last time the paths of the youth teams of Ukraine and England crossed in March 2018, as part of the group stage of the Euro 2019 qualification. Then in Sheffield the English won 2:1 thanks to goals from Calvert-Lewin and Dominic Solanke, and Nikolai Shaparenko scored against Ukraine. The English and Ukrainian youth teams could have met in the Euro 2023 finals, but the blue-and-yellows lost to the Spaniards one step away from the decisive match.
England’s summer triumph
Euro 2023 was a real triumph for the English youth team. Not only did England win the championship title for the first time in 39 years (to success on the fields of Romania and Georgia, the England youth team won the continental championship in 1984) and broke the black streak in the history of the team (since 2011, for seven final tournaments England U- 21 made it out of the group only twice, including Euro 2023), and did not concede a single goal during the entire tournament.
At Euro 2023, the English beat their peers from the Czech Republic, Israel (twice), Germany, Portugal and Spain (in the final).
Continuity
The England U-19 youth team of 2022, which also became the continental champion last year, did not lag behind their senior comrades. In five matches of the tournament, the English scored 12 goals, conceding only twice, and even then, allowing their opponents to hit their goal only in the playoffs – in the semi-finals and finals.
Yes, at the next tournament the British did not reach the final, but, on the other hand, a number of players from the “golden” youth team of England – in particular, Ramsey, Bayono-Gittens, Ealing Junior, Jebbison, Norton-Guffey, Chukwuemeka – are already playing in the youth team.
The right trainer
The success of England is the merit of the Irish specialist Lee Carsley, who headed the English youth team more than two years ago. Under his leadership, the team played 24 matches before the start of the October qualifying matches, winning 19 victories with four defeats and one draw. And it’s important – three of the four matches England lost were friendlies: against Japan, Croatia and Georgia.
The English suffered their only defeat in an official match in the last round of the group stage of Euro 2023 qualification, losing to their Slovenian peers, when the fate of a ticket to the final stage of the tournament was decided.
Star cast
The current England team is one of the most star-studded teams in Euro 2025 qualification. There are six representatives of the English youth team in the TOP 20 most expensive young players in Europe. On the other hand, the team also includes representatives from the lower leagues of English professional football.
Bristol City, Oxford United, Middlesbrough, Hull – representatives of these clubs get along well as part of the English youth team with players from Manchester City, Chelsea, Borussia Dortmund, Juventus, Newcastle and Liverpool.
And yes, the Transfermarkt portal estimates the composition of the England youth team at 292 million euros. This is 15 times higher than the cost of the Ukrainian youth team roster – 18.4 million euros. There are 12 players in the England U-21 national team whose value is above 10 million euros. The most expensive player of the Ukrainian youth team, Dynamo goalkeeper Ruslan Neshcheret, is estimated at three million euros.
Source: Sportarena
I’m Scott Moore, a professional writer and journalist based in the US. I’ve been writing for various publications for over 8 years now, and have been working as an author at athletistic for the past five years. My work has been featured by some of the leading sports websites and magazines across Europe.
