Key events
71 min Nwaneri has been more dangerous since moving to the right. He opens the game up with a good run and cutback to Elliott, who miskicks a cross-shot with his right foot.
The key word there is ‘right’.
70 min Germany play the Czech Republic this evening, after which England will know exactly what they need to do to reach the knockout stages. If it stays like this a draw against Germany would almost certainly get the job done; a narrow defeat might be okay as well.
69 min Slovenia’s threat has waned in the second half, and I can’t remember the last time Seslar got on the ball in a dangerous area. That might be the heat taking a toll.
66 min: Slovenia substitution Jost Pjsek is on for Enrik Ostrc.
65 min: Triple substitution for England Omari Hutchinson, Jack Hinshelwood and Brooke Norton-Cuffy replace Jonathan Rowe, Elliot Anderson and Archie Gray.
63 min Livramento charges away from Ilenic to win a … Slovenia goalkick. He thought it should have bene a corner.
62 min Nwaneri, playing on the right, moves dangerously infield only to launch his shot into orbit.
59 min A chipped cross from the right reaches Anderson on the far side. He pushes the ball back to McAtee, who works just enough space for a shot that deflects behind for a corner.
57 min One thing you can’t accuse this England team of is a lack of patience. That nervous start aside, they have spent most of the game moving the ball from side to side, probing for any space between the lines or behind the defence. The stats reinforce that; they’ve had 61 per cent of the possession.
56 min “I googled Svit Sešlar (As I’m sure most readers have done at half time) and found that he plays for Eyüpspor,” writes Jimmy McManners. “I’m assuming they are a minor league side somewhere in Yorkshire. Perhaps founded by an Australian who added the ‘sport’.”
54 min A quiet spell. At the risk of stating the offensively obvious: the longer this stays 0-0, the bigger the first goal becomes.
Good save by Beadle!
50 min An England clearance is seized upon by Begic, who angles a careful pass into Seslar on the edge of the D. He takes a touch and swishes a rising drive, no backlift, that is pushed behind draamtically by the diving Beadle.
Brilliant save by Turk!
48 min A nice lofted pass into the Slovenia area is chested off by McAtee to Livramento. He slides an early low cross back to McAtee, whose close-range shot is desperately saved by Turk. McAtee, off balance and under pressure, flicks the rebound just wide.
It’s a brilliant save from Turk but McAtee was only a few yards out and should probably have given no chance.
46 min Slovenia get the second half under way.
Half-time reading
How do make Serie A’s player of the season even more dangerous? Get Kevin De Bruyne to feed him.
Half time: England 0-0 Slovenia
No goals at the Nitra Stadium, though a 2-2 scoreline wouldn’t stretch credulity. Slovenia started excellently and forced a handful of good-to-fine saves from James Beadle. England took 20 minutes to settle and then started creating chances. James McAtee and Ethan Nwaneri probably should have scored; Harvey Elliott almost did when a mistimed cross* hit the post.
The star of the half was Slovenia’s left-footed playmaker Svit Seslar, whose maverick performance really should have been accompanied by a fag dangling rakishly from his mouth as he addressed the ball with his left foot. If you still play Football Manager, you know what to do.
* Probably. Only one person knows.
45 min Elliott flashes a shot over from 25 yards. Decent effort but a few yards over.
44 min A nice move from England. Elliott, whose influence is growing, shapes a fine pass with the outside of the foot to release the underlapping Gray. His cutback is fractionally behind Rowe, who can’t get a shot away under pressure from Zeljkovic.
43 min “One of the Channel 4 commentators is having trouble with Nwaneri – it’s coming out as Nwanieri for some reason,” says Charles Antaki. “Why he should have Claudio Ranieri on his mind is anyone’s guess. Anyway the commentary is pleasingly low-stakes and generally encouraging. You’d hardly realise it was an England national team.”
It’s easy to understand why Lee Carsley couldn’t wait to get back, isn’t it?
42 min Elliott’s corner is headed up in the air and in the general direction of goal by Anderson. Turk moves across his line to make a comfortable save as the ball drops out of the sky.
39 min This is a really enjoyable game. Slovenia have been the more consistent threat but England have had their moments and could easily have scored three themselves.
A reminder that, for England, anything less than the best is a felony a defeat would make life extremely tricky going into their last group game against Germany on Wednesday. A draw wouldn’t be the end of the world, especially as Slovenia lost 3-0 to Germany.
Elliott hits the post!
36 min What a goal that would have been. Anderson drove an angled pass over the defence towards Elliott on the left side of the penalty area. He met the ball on the volley, cushioning a beautiful effort over Turk that swerved onto the face of the post.
Actually, I take it back – Conor Coady reckons Elliott was trying to volley the ball across goal rather than towards it, and after seeing a replay I suspect he’s right.
33 min England look nervously to the referee when Cipot goes down in the area after a challenge from Gray – but then everybody realises the flag has gone up against Cipot.
33 min A replay of the Nwaneri chance shows that, while he should have scored, the ball did bounce just in front of him and that made the chance a bit more awkward.
Fine save by Beadle!
31 min This fella Seslar is strolling round like he owns the place. He receives the ball in space 25 yards out, walks forward a couple of paces and cuts across a left-foot shot that is tipped over well by Beadle. The way he struck that ball was so similar to one of Gheorghe Hagi’s deadly wobblers in the early 1990s.
Nwaneri misses a great chance!
29 min That was an even better opportunity for England. Somebody (not sure who) played a fabulous ball inside Brest to release Rowe on the right. He slowed down to lure Brest towards him, then left him for dead as he surged into the area. Rowe slid a perfect ball across that took the keeper out of the game and seemed to give Nwaneri an open goal at the far post – only for Nwaneri to leave the ball behind. We haven’t seen a replay but at first viewing it looked a bad miss.
26 min Conor Coady, the co-commentator on Channel 4, says this “feels like a second game that has come round really quickly”. That’s a fair assessment of England’s sluggish start.
All things being equal, Coady will be a fine pundit over the next 20 years – he’s a natural.
24 min England take a free-kick short to Elliott, who curls a long pass towards Cresswell at the far post. He mistimes his header and the ball goes behind off his shoulder. Even with a clean contact he would probably have tried to head the ball back across goal.
McAtee misses an excellent chance
21 min England should be in front. An attempted clearance from the edge of the area hit another Slovenia player and ricocheted to put McAtee through on goal in the inside-right channel. He passed the ball tamely across goal and wide with his right foot.
Rowe – whose presence forced the clearance that led to the chance – is frustrated that McAtee didn’t look for him with a square pass.
20 min More work for Beadle, who has to scramble across his line save Cipot’s long-range shot at the second attempt. Cipot, who is contracted to the Serie B club Spezia, has been impressive up front.
19 min England enjoy some extended possession in the Slovenia half. Eventually Hackney runs into trouble, but then England counter-press is successful and they settle into another passing move.
17 min Quansah is forced into conceding another corner. England are in a game here; not that Lee Carsley will be surprised.
This time Seslar’s corner is headed away by Cresswell.
15 min “Does that yellow card mean Elliott is suspended for the next match? asks Joe Pearson.
No. It’s the other Elliott – Anderson – who is on a yellow card from the first game.
Actually, that gag, such as it was, don’t even work because Elliot Anderson only has one T in her first name. A triumph all round.
14 min “Is four double-barrelled surnames on the bench some kind of England record?” asks Andrew Goudie.
I’d be surprised if it is. The days of Peter Rhoades-Brown being a double-barrelled novelty are long gone.
Fine save by Beadle!
11 min Slovenia are all over England like a cheap cliche. Seslar’s nonchalant outswinging corner is headed across goal towards the unmarked Cipot. He watches the bounce and batters a first-time shot that is kicked away by Beadle – an excellent save because he had to react so quickly. It didn’t just hit his legs, which is often the case with saves like that.
9 min Elliott was booked for something or other just after that effort from Seslar.
Lovely effort from Seslar!
8 min Begic has time to curl a flat ball into the area towards Seslar, who improvises an overhead kick from 15 yards that loops over Beadle and onto the roof of the net. Seslar’s left foot looks like it has spent at a semester or two at Harvard.
6 min Cipot bursts down the right and is fouled by Quansah. There was no real need to give away a free-kick there – and it almost proved costly for England.
Seslar clipped a very dangerous cross into a crowd of players at the near post, and the ball eventually rolled just wide. It’s hard to see exactly what happened – there were so many players in the six-yard box – but I think it might have hit the legs of the unsighted keeper Beadle at one stage.
5 min Nothing much to report early on. A loose pass out of defence from Quanash was intercepted but nothing came of it.
2 min Slovenia are a good side, who finished top of their qualification group despite losing 4-0 at home to France*. They drew the return game – against a France team that included Desire Doue and Mathys Tel – and won five of the other six.
1 min England kick off from left to right as we watch. It really is warm out there, 28 degrees apparently. Little brisk.
The players are about to take the field on what looks a very warm evening in western Slovakia. Let’s have a quick reminder of the teams.
England (4-2-2-2) Beadle; Gray, Cresswell, Quansah, Livramento; Hackney, Anderson; Elliott, Nwaneri; McAtee, Rowe.
Substitutes: Simkin, Sharman-Lowe, Edwards, Fellows, Hutchinson, Norton-Cuffy, Egan-Riley, Hinshelwood, Iling-Junior, Stansfield, Scott, Morton.
Slovenia (4-2-3-1) Turk; Ilenic, Jevsenak, Golic, Kuzmic; Ostrc, Zeljkovic; Seslar, Begic, Brest; T Cipot.
Substitutes: Leban, Stubljar, Obric, Kojic, Krupic, Lorber, Jovanovic, Topalovic, Pecar, Pisek, Cuber Potocnik, Milic.
Referee Goga Kikacheishvili (Georgia)
“I really enjoy our under-21s,” says Ian Copestake. “Harvey Elliott can shine and feel the respect despite his haircut and these boys can just play free.”
Freedom makes the world go round.
Lee Carsley talks to Channel 4
There are a lot of areas [we can improve upon]. The challenge is to play with more control; it’s gonna be a tough game tonight. Slovenia are a strong team and we’ve struggled against them in the past.
Slovenia had a lot of chances against Germany, even though they lost 3-0, especially in the first half. We’re really aware of their strengths and we’ll try to expose their weaknesses where we can.
[On Ethan Nwaneri] He adds a lot. Everyone’s seen his quality; the key with Ethan is to make sure we don’t rush him, that we share his minutes around so that when he does play he has an impact. He’s been brilliant in the camp so far. You have to keep reminding yourself how old he is.
The players on a yellow card
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England Elliot Anderson
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Slovenia Mitja Ilenic, Srdan Kuzmic, Tjas Begic, Enrik Ostrc
The XIs
England (4-2-2-2) Beadle; Gray, Cresswell, Quansah, Livramento; Hackney, Anderson; Elliott, Nwaneri; McAtee, Rowe.
Substitutes: Simkin, Sharman-Lowe, Edwards, Fellows, Hutchinson, Norton-Cuffy, Egan-Riley, Hinshelwood, Iling-Junior, Stansfield, Scott, Morton.
Slovenia (4-2-3-1) Turk; Ilenic, Jevsenak, Golic, Kuzmic; Ostrc, Zeljkovic; Seslar, Begic, Brest; T Cipot.
Substitutes: Leban, Stubljar, Obric, Kojic, Krupic, Lorber, Jovanovic, Topalovic, Pecar, Pisek, Cuber Potocnik, Milic.
Referee Goga Kikacheishvili (Georgia)
England team news: Nwaneri starts
Lee Carsley makes two changes from the win over the Czech Republic: Middlesbrough’s Hayden Hackney and Arsenal’s Ethan Nwaneri replace Alex Scott and Omari Hutchinson.
Slovenia manager Andrej Razdrh sticks with the team that started against Germany. We’ll have the full XIs in a second.
The story so far
England beat the Czech Republic 3-1 thanks to goals from Harvey Elliott, Jonathan Rowe and Charlie Cresswell.
Slovenia were beaten 3-0 by Germany, with Stuttgart’s Nick Woltemade – who played with the big boys in the recent Nations League – scoring a hat-trick.
Preamble
And so to Nitra, where the holders England play Slovenia in their second group game of the European Under-21 Championship. A hard-fought victory over the Czech Republic means Lee Carsley’s side will almost certainly qualify for the quarter-finals if they win again today.
Fail and it will come to the last group game against Germany. But the likeliest scenario, certainly the ideal one for England, is that the only thing at stake in that game will be who finishes top of the group.
Kick off 5pm.
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