2009 UEFA European Under 21 Football Championship: Group B Preview

The 2009 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship kicks off on Monday, Jun. 15 and runs for two weeks as eight of Europe’s finest teams battle to be crowned champions of Europe.

The draw is split into two groups of four, each team playing each other once with the top two from each group progressing to face off in the semi-finals.

Below I preview the nations making up Group B of the 17th staging of the UEFA competition, hosted for the first time in Sweden.

My Group A Preview can be found here.

England

Won Group Three winning seven and drawing one and only conceded one goal (and then only a penalty) in eight games, finishing ahead of Portugal with 22 out of 24 points.

Played Wales in the Playoffs, a 3-2 away win in Cardiff proving decisive with a 2-2 draw at Villa Park eventually taking them through after two tough games.

James Milner top scored in qualifying with five goals, closely followed by Aston Villa teammate Gabriel Agbonlahor who netted four. Joe Hart and Steven Taylor started all ten qualifying games in which they kept an impressive seven clean sheets.

England won twice, triumphing back-to-back in 1982 and 1984. They reached the semi-finals last time out in 2007 under Stuart Pearce, losing an epic penalty shoot-out 13-12 to eventual winners Holland.

Finland

The Finns edged a strong Group Six finishing three points ahead of Denmark and Scotland, winning six of their eight games including their first five consecutively, each by a one-goal margin.

This set them up to face Austria in the Playoffs and they qualified the hard way. Trailing 2-1 from the away leg and one-nil down until the dying minutes in the return, they produced two goals in the last ten minutes to win 2-1 on the night, sending the tie to extra time before they eventually advanced on penalties.

Halmstads’ Tim Sparv was their top scorer with three goals in qualification, each goal proving the winner in a trio of 1-0 wins during the group phase.

2009 marks Finland’s first ever qualification for the UEFA Under-21 final tournament.

Germany

Two big wins over Luxembourg (6-0 and 7-0) enabled Germany to top Group Nine ahead of Israel on goal difference in a rather stuttering campaign. Both games against Israel were drawn and Germany embarrassingly lost 1-0 in Moldova.

Paired with France in the Playoffs, Germany was on the brink of going out on away goals after drawing 1-1 at home and of being held goalless up until the last minute in Metz. However, Benedikt Höwedes's last minute strike sensationally secured qualification.

Rouwen Hennings finished as the joint top scorer in qualifying with seven goals (tied with Wales’ Ched Evans).

Surprisingly, given their success at senior level, Germany has never won the Under-21 title—their best results being three runners-up placings in 1978, 1980, and 1982.

Spain

Spain won Group Four with a 100 percent record, the only team to do so, and only conceded two goals in the process as they ran away with their section ahead of Russia.

The Playoffs were a different matter entirely as Spain lost their first leg 2-1 in Switzerland and then went a goal down in the second leg in Spain.

However, an equaliser on the night and then a 95th minute winner sent the tie into extra time with Raúl García scoring the decisive goal to seal a place in Sweden, making it 3-1 on the night and 4-3 on aggregate.

Athletico Madrid’s José Manuel Jurado top scored in qualifying with four goals, but Barcelona’s Bojan Krkić also weighed in with three goals from six games and the 18 year old could prove vital this summer.

Spain was a two time previous champion in 1986 and most recently in 1998 when the likes of Guti and Michel Salgado guided the Spaniards to victory. A side containing Raul were also runners-up in 1996 when they lost on penalties to Italy.

Group B Fixtures

Mon Jun. 15 England vs. Finland

Mon Jun. 15 Spain vs. Germany

Thur Jun. 18 Germany vs. Finland

Thur Jun. 18 Spain vs. England

Mon Jun. 22 Germany vs. England

Mon Jun. 22 Finland vs. Spain