Germany 2-1 England (18 Jun, 2025) Game Analysis

England suffered their first loss of the European Under-21 Championship, with a 2-1 defeat to Germany on Wednesday in Slovakia, but still progressed to the quarterfinals.

After taking four points from their three games to finish second in Group B, Lee Carsley’s England will now take on Spain in the quarterfinals on Saturday.

With the luxury of taking maximum points from their first two games to already guarantee progress, Germany made 11 changes to their lineup for their final group game.

Despite the rotation, Germany raced into a 2-0 lead before half-time through goals from Ansgar Knauff and Nelson Weiper.

England, who featured four changes to the team that drew with Slovenia on Sunday, pulled a goal back from Bournemouth’s Alex Scott with 14 minutes remaining, but couldn’t find an equaliser in the closing stages.

“Good to score a goal, but disappointed with the result, and we didn’t start well enough,” Scott said. “The second half completely changed. It freed up James McAtee as a number 10 and something we can build on going into the quarterfinals.

“We work on it everyday in training. It has not clicked in the games, but the quality we have in the team — it is a matter of time when the goals start flying in.

“We are going to recover from this and look into Spain.”

Germany will take on Italy on Sunday for a place in the semifinals.